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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

A Memorial Weekend Chicago Astronomer Star Party

25 May 2014

It's a shame to let a good clear night go without setting up telescopes and sharing the skies with our fans and friends, so....

A last minute, unscheduled Chicago Astronomer Star Party is a go for tonight,  Sunday, the 25th of May at 8:00 pm till 10:30 pm at our regular public observing site, just west of the Adler Planetarium building...(See above).

For tonight, we will have Four planets, (Saturn, Mercury, Mars and Jupiter) to share with our sky lovers.  And really four planets in one night session is pretty cool and special.  It will be a nice warm spring night to see friends and chat astronomy.

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

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Every One loves a Chicago Astronomer gathering...

....No really

This last minute gathering of Telescopes and Astronomers was a fun time with fans and friends of the Chicago Astronomer.  A warm night was before us and with this Memorial day weekend, it was a shame not to share the urban skies.


Arriving around 8pm, Chicago Astronomers Paulie and Rich were already on-site and we set up our gear.  Using the Sears Tower to align our finder scopes, our early guests were fascinated with the detail that could be observed of the antennae array.  Jupiter was our first target of the session - and atmospheric condition were pretty good, as banding was sharp and two Jovian satellites were almost kissing....





My credo is "Set up a scope...and they will come!"...proved true once again and we had long lines waiting for the chance to view the cosmos.  Really, the only opportunity for the public to share the skies in the city at no cost.  Calls were made by those present and more arrived.  Chicago Astronomer Bill joined us and we had three scopes to attend to our guests, a Dobsonian, A SCT and a refractor ready to pry the secrets out of our planetary neighbors...




Cars stopped along the way, trying to figure out what was going on and asking if they could take a peek.  And...with the new Divi bike rack set up at our site, we get visitors returning bikes and staying for a bit...

The C11 is a handsome hunk of instrumentation, being the largest mobile public telescope in the city...impresses all who have the opportunity to view through her.  Many ask details about it, what the other scopes attached do, the on-board targeting laser and the ambient music that plays for the session.  Often asked how much this beast costs, I tell them with all the modding I have done to it, making it unique and one-of-a-kind...it's priceless.   None like it anywhere.


(I'm impressed as well.... )


We had high thin wispy clouding, but it did not interfere with our observing...

We get a lot of kids at our sessions which is a wonderful opportunity to introduce young minds to astronomy...





Our only issue with the younger set, is unsupervised kids grabbing the scopes and running around, with clueless parents doing nothing about it.  With anybody, you move the scope, you lost your turn...sorry but next!   Fortunately, we did not encounter any issues this session and everyone was well behaved. 

Master sky navigator Bill picking out his next target....



We had a nice bike club stop by and share time with us....

The club gave me and the Chicago Astronomers a round of applause and cheer for doing this for the public.....Yay!....

We slewed over to our three planets of the evening, Jupiter, Mars and Saturn.  Mercury was too low and obscured by low clouds to be observed.   Mars has a pretty good Ice Cap and showing terrestrial markings.  Saturn was pretty good too, displaying a nice ring system and planetary banding...Titan also also prominent...

Rich, having issues with with gear, participated as our planetary ambassador, using my Android Tablet and planet explorer app, he demonstrated various attributes of the planets that we were observing for the public...

I dig this pic of Rich explaining something to one of our young fans.

Excitement builds as we announce that Saturn would be our next object, describing what would be seen...

(Image not from this session)

Seasoned Astronomers frequently hear that Saturn...looks unreal...like someone pasted sticker on the lens.  We convince them that they are viewing a ringed planetary system with rings about 30 feet thick, reflecting light back from the Sun to Earth and into their eyes in real time..or really - about an hour old - the time it takes the reflected light from the planet to reach Earth.

They all dig it.

I always dig that we can provide a special moment between a parent and child...when first peeks at the cosmos are shared together.

If it were not for my fellow Astronomers and their gear, my lines would be insanely long.....

Lines of eager sky lovers were steady all through this session, many never having observed through sophisticated equipment prior, we entertained discussions of all things astronomical with our guests...

Paulie's low Dob scope is great for the younger kids...

Asking what time it was, I was amazed that this session was almost over, but we still had plenty of fans to attend to, answering questions and disproving the myth that you can't see anything in the city.......Urban astronomy is alive and well with the Chicago Astronomer crew...

We have 1/2 hour before we call an end to another successful Chicago Astronomer session...

Many of our guests took their looks, went to our other scopes and returned for another peek at celestial wonder...so far away, yet brought down to their grasp.  It's really something cool if you think about it....

Who doesn't dig The Chicago Astronomer, eh....?







There is nothing else more satisfying as the many smiling faces we get as we introduce the cosmos to our fans...after all, we are looking back from the star stuff from which we came - and feel an affinity and kinship with what we strive to see with the Chicago Astronomer crew...



Rich and I discuss the success of this session and how many different languages were overheard as our visitors enjoyed a solid time with the planets....

Our stage, as we hold an audience and present the Universe at only a request....

Our Crew for the evening...

Chicago Astronomers: Bill Rich, myself, Maria and Paulie.

A huge thanks to the crew who came out on very short notice on this unscheduled Star Party on Memorial Day Weekend and sharing the skies with our fans.  Always a fun time with the crew and we attended to 120 satisfied visitors peering through our scopes.


Till our next public session......stay tuned...

[-=CROMAN=-]

It was a very good evening.