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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Chicago Astronomer & Chicago Park District join Star Party

Jefferson Memorial Park

26 April 2014

Chicago Park District Website link

Our next joint Chicago Astronomer & Chicago Park District session will be on

Saturday, the 26th of April 2014 - 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm.

Mars will be up and ready for examination...as well as Mighty Hercules and his great M13 Star Cluster.   We will enjoy both, as well as a host of other early spring celestial targets for our park visitors.

Updates and final details as the date approaches.

[patrickm]

Alas will be in Rockford. May have to take scope and show some old people the Martians.

[shareef777]

Hoping to make it out! Would be my first star-party attendance :-)

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

777...

Very cool that the Chicago Astronomers will be your guide to your first star party experience.

Weather is looking good and ready for urban astronomy.

See then!

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

UPDATE:

We are a solid go for tonight.

Even if it clouds over later, we will still set-up the C11 and talk astronomy and optics and stars and black holes etc...

Jefferson Park will also run the movie "Planes" before the star party and we will have a bon fire in the area for some s'mores.

It's a little cool out, so dress appropriately.

Be there......

[shareef777]

Hey Joe,

Wanted to extend a big thanks for the session this past weekend and I look forward to attending more star parties in the future.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Hi 777...

I have yet to post all the pics of the star party, but coming up shortly.

Point out the ones that have you in therm when I do!

Great that you enjoyed yourself and there will be plenty of more Chicago Astronomer events in the coming months.....be there.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

A great time with Chicago Astronomer Fans on the city's north side

26 April 2014

For our 2nd joint Chicago Astronomer and Chicago Park District Urban astronomy series, we head up to Jefferson Memorial Park on a chilly late April evening.  

Arriving at 7pm, we drive up to our observation site, I immediately meet Park Supervisor Andrea Woppel, welcoming me and offering any assisting in making this a great session...even in shutting off the park lights if I would like.  Our Park events coordinator Kathleen was already there, getting things ready, bringing binoculars, laying out arrows on the ground and having the young visitors chalk out planets on the sidewalk...

(Thanks to friend Christie for these sidewalk pics)

The skies were threatening and I wasn't too sure if the massive cloud cover would stay to our northwest, blotting out the skies for us.  We do have a cloudy sky program just in case, but we had slight high clouds and haze, good enough for some solid Jupiter and Mars views.  There was no need for turning off the park lights for this gathering of sky lovers.

While setting up the C11 beast, we discussed all things astronomical and I instructed the ever growing group to look out for Jupiter, riding high along the ecliptic....and should be popping out from the background - looking like a bright star.

I use the iPad mini to instruct our guests in what we will be observing tonight, including a possible visible pass of the International Space station...




We had a steady crowd building while it was still light out and Kathleen had a nice bon-fire going with S'mores. In short time, we were ready for some urban astronomy with eager guests at the ready...




...and some bringing their own telescopes to join in on our event.

 And soon enough, Jupiter popped into view -  visible to the naked eye and most were not aware that bright point of light was indeed a planet.




Regular fans of the Chicago Astronomer arrived throughout the session, while others soon became new fans...reading about this event on the Chicago Park District website and flyers.




Chicago Astronomer support crew members Maria & Barbara were bundled up and attended to our guests as I chatted about what we were sharing and all things cosmos...



The skies were holding and allowing good views of planets...but not for fainter objects like binaries or star clusters....



Mars was displaying a nice polar ice cap and terrestrial features, while Jupiter's banding and Jovian satellites were a hit with our observers.  I kept the magnification down, due to the high haze and atmospheric turbulence ahead of this front that was about to pass through.



Kathleen was working the crowd, passing around binoculars and educating the crowd on our spring celestial targets for the evening....





 




We were soon joined with another family bringing their small aperture refractor and focused on Jupiter and Mars...



Fellow Chicago Astronomer fan, paramedic and Astronomer Ed stopped by in-between runs and hope he can join us often.



As the night progressed, the skies became more hazy, but we were still able to tease out Jupiter from the approaching clouds...




Many who viewed Jupiter, had their turn and immediately went to the back of the line for another look...




We all attempted to view the ISS pass, but it was a low arc this evening at only 14 degrees high...and was lost to the haze and clouds.











At 10:30 pm, we broke down the observation site as the clouds thickened and the crowd thinned...




This was a well attended Chicago Astronomer/Park Dist session, with close to 100 sky lovers coming out on a chilly spring evening from all over the city.  I appreciate Kathleen's wonderful interest in urban astronomy and working smartly to make our joint sessions better with her enthusiasm. 

Our next joint park session will be on the 10th of May at Calumet Park - stay tuned for details soon.

[Paulie pchris00]

We only have have two observing seasons in this region: cold & mosquitoes. This looks like a January star party, not late April. I for one, am looking forward to mosquitoes soon.

Good job.

[shareef777]

Quick question regarding the session. What size eye piece was used for Jupiter?

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

777

With the weather being a bit hazy...I kept the magnification low.

Using a 40mm 2" eyepiece, we divide the focal length of the C11, which is 2800mm and come up with an easy 70x magnification. Even with this low power, we were all able to enjoy the banding on the planet and catch the four satellites.

The "Text Book" absolute magnification for this scope is 1000x, but atmospheric conditions and optical collimation has to be near perfect. Usually, astronomers keep the magnification low, but I can push magnification and keep resolution at around 200x or 300x with ease.