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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Chicago Astronomer Star Party

Thursday 07 July 2011

Seems like we will have a cold front pass Wednesday...and right behind it, a beautiful high pressure system that will last a couple of days.

Taking full advantage of this clear sky, I'm setting up telescopes by the Adler area at about 7:30 pm...

There will no events at any of the venues surrounding the observation site and the Taste is thankfully over. Saturn of course will be our highlight of the evening, the fattening Moon will also be a nice target that we can explore.

May do another one on Friday, but that will be determined Thursday.

If free or in the area, stop by and share the urban skies with us.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

I may do a Friday and Saturday session as well.


Plenty of opportunities for all good Chicago Astronomers to come out...

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

The high cloud overcast condition will slide away from the region by nightfall and the session is still a solid go.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

School Night Star Party...

I didn't expect a lot of visitors, considering it was a week day, but I was sorta swamped with lovers of the sky all evening...

Fellow Adler Docent Carmen arrived early, (here with Chicago Astronomer fan Jerry)... and was of great help attending to the crowds and working the C11 while my attentions were elsewhere. The Moon was the early target of the evening and the collimation of the C11 was good...very good. Craters were crisp...and Saturn a short time later made for an excellent wonder for our visitors...

Long time Chicago Astronomer fan Rhea, (above), joined us soon after sundown, bringing her goto 60mm. Having a second scope helped siphon the visitors, as Rhea displayed the moon in her scope as I trained the C11 on Saturn...

I didn't have the chance to polar align the scope this evening, as almost immediately upon setting up, we were off and running constant till I broke down the site at 11:00 pm. So it was bumping the slo-mos all night to keep Saturn in view. ( I need to mark the observation area with permanent markers of somesort of known altitude and azimuth headings for the C11, so as to polar align/set up in daylight...I need to think about this.)

With both the Moon and Saturn diving into the atmospheric muck, it was time to split some binaries and pick out M57 for our visitors..

This was the first break-in for the new Extended Dew Shield for the C11. It does indeed keep stray unwanted light out & off the Corrector Plate and out of the OTA. I installed it with the help of visitors, but should attach it before we start the session in daylight...

And....New Chicago Astronomer fan Mike and his family are becoming a regular at Chicago Astronomer events...very cool...

Doing this solo and the amount of visitors/fans/friends sometimes overwhelms me and difficult to attend to our guests, take pictures and target objects. I appreciate my fellow Chicago Astronomers more everytime!

[tomlee]

Joe,

You are good, still pull off with all that great shots.

I don't kown if your mount works the same way, for polar alignment, as the cgem style mount. If so, you can hold or tape your smart phone w/ Android and GPS enabled sky view app to the path, then scan for Polaris and other stars. The taping part can be as creative as you want. If anyone can tape this well, it's you.

Are we talking about the same thing? I know I am the newbie here but I think this can help in daylight situation.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

TomL,

I was thinking about Velcro-ing the Smartphone to the rear of the C11 just for this purpose.

It will take some trials before I'm confident on it's accuracy...and the large amount of metal may throw the calibration of the phone off some.

But I will need some quiet/non-public sessions to work this out.

Thanks man!