(Viewed 2,025 times)

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Chicago Park District & Chicago Astronomer Joint Star Party Session

Tuesday 21st August 2012

The next Chicago Park District and Chicago Astronomer joint star party session will be on Tuesday, the 21st of August at 8:00 pm. at Chicago's front yard - Northerly Island.

(Originally, this event was scheduled for the 18th of August, but the Chicago Bears are playing in the area and the museum campus will be shut down.)

We will share views of a new waxing Moon, the last of Saturn and a host of other celestial delights. We will most likely remain on-site till the park closes at 11:00 pm and enjoy the best vantage site in the city. With a great eastern vista, we will grab some of the fall targets for this session.

(Check back here or on facebook/twitter/google+ for updates/confirmations/reschedules ...weather you know.)

Be there...you know you want to.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

UPDATE:

www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/events/stargazing-northerly-island/

We are a solid go for tomorrow's Park Dist/Chicago Astronomer joint star party at Northerly Island. Weather is looking good for a clear evening of looking up.

I will set-up astronomical gear at 8:00 pm and remain till about 10:30 pm.

We will have a nice celestial triangle of a crescent Moon, Saturn and Mars.

Be there....you know you want to.

[patrickm]

Hope to be there. Do you know where you are setting up? Will need to get there early as I am full of sloth.

[patrickm]

Aww, heck. We have tickets to Dead Can Dance at Pritzker Pavillion tonight. I was really looking forward to this one, too.

Have fun.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Aw man, sorry you won't be there Patrick.

Perhaps we can do another private event for the crew soon.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

A great time at the Island...

Full pic series and narrative laters.....

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

A clear and crisp night at Northerly Island

21 August 2012

I had decided to set-up the observation site closer to the parking lot and access walking path...than the locale we utilized in 2010 - much further south. It's quite a walk to the darker spot, but not visitor friendly.

We had several visitors on-site before I arrived at 8:00 pm, waiting fir us and anticipating the chance to peer through large telescopic instruments. Chicago Astronomer Bill brought his 6" reflector and new Astronomer Barry, (teacher at a suburban school district), brought his brand new fork-mounted go-to C11 to the party...

Barry hopes to join us frequently in future Chicago Astronomer sessions...

Ready for us, was the very nice conjunction of Mars, Saturn, Spica and the crescent Moon hanging in the west. The Moon was our first target of the session with all scopes using various magnifications. I popped in a 23mm 2" eyepiece for some 121x magnification, but already the grouping was low in the atmospheric muck and images were soft. Saturn was the brief hit of the session and Mars...well, it was nice to see the small red tinted dot and prompted discussion on the new Curiosity Mars mission.

We attend to our eager visitors with three scopes...

Chicago Astronomer Support crew members Barbara & Maria were on-site guiding our visitors to scopes and chatting. I was very busy for this session, answering astronomical questions and conversing non-stop... describing what we were looking at in the eyepiece - using the Tablet in assisting in the explanation...

...and the phone kept ringing/texting with fellow Astronomers and fans of the Chicago Astronomer...sending messages of arrival or regret in attending.

And we continue with targeting celestial delights....

C.A. Bill was set-up away from the main gathering, which was nice, spreading out the scope stations and with his master targeting of the skies, shared less traveled objects...

C.A. Steve arrived to join in and enjoy the evening, as did many of our Chicago Astronomer fans and those who read about this event on the Chicago Park District website.

And we continue...

We had many kids at this session, along with students and lovers of astronomy who relished in catching views not readily available to the average person....and from Chicago's great front yard...

We were now losing the conjunction grouping sinking fast in the west...

...which now left our skies without any major bright targets to share. We now picked out our favorite summer objects like the E.T. & Double Star clusters, Binaries, Andromeda...and Bill even caught the Swan Nebula...!

Old friends arrived to share and we made new ones this evening...

Gerry, (above), Chicago Astronomer fan, brought along a Gyro meal for this hungry Astronomer. Thanks Gerry...!

New to the Chicago Astronomer arsenal of gear...was wrapping the step-ladder in L.E.D lighting. I had this length of lights for quite awhile, picked up the the American Science and Surplus for cheap....didn't know what to do with it. I thought perhaps it would be of use in a darker location...and it was. Came in very useful for our Northerly Island site...

It was now 9:30 pm and we were still going strong with our visitors laying out blankets and enjoying our three scopes...

My support crew takes a break....

Chicago Park District "Nature Oasis" Program and Event Facilitator, Sarah and Astro Joe...

We stayed till about 10:45 pm, when we started to break down our site, chatting with our friends as we dis-assembled our gear, but we take a last group shot....

We had a total of 40 visitors to this session. I was "on" for the entire session, didn't get a chance to mingle with the other Astronomers much and spent the entire time pointing objects out with the laser, explaining orbital mechanics and slewing the C11 beast around for our guests.

Thanks to Bill, Maria, Barbara and Barry for working this star party and making it a very successful fun time for all.

Onward to our next joint Chicago Park District & Chicago Astronomer Star Party at Margate Park on September 7th....!