(Viewed 932 times)

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

A Friday night Star Party with the Chicago Astronomer

30 May 2014

A beautiful high pressure system has swept over the Chicago area...and a great time to share views with our fans and friends through Chicago's Largest public mobile Telescope.

We will catch three planets...(Maybe four), from just west of the Adler Planetarium building and enjoy a end of May observation session..ready for June skies.  We will set-up Friday evening at 8pm and remain till 10:30.  No work/school the next day, so we can share conversations while we guide you personally through the solar system.


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

Astro Joe 

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

A solid public session under the Urban skies with Fans of the Chicago Astronomer....




I knew this would be a great night to gather the Chicago Astronomer crew and set-up scopes....and I was right.

Arriving at 8pm, it was going to be a chilly and crisp evening, but I like a bit of chill in the air...and it makes for better viewing in eyepieces.  Chicago Astronomer Bill was already on site and new to the Chicago Astronomer public Observation experience was Roger from the Kankakee area and a fan of the C.A. for quite awhile now.  An experienced Astronomer and Astro Imager, capturing great pics of the heavens, it was a treat to have him join us...

Bringing along his C11 riding on an Atlas mount,  Roger was ready to share lakefront views with our fans.

Along with my C11 Blueberry Beast, we had Bill's 10" Dob and C.A. Steve's 8" SCT.  We use the Sears tower to align our scopes and finders...tweaking connectors, balancing tubes and choosing eyepieces....ready to take on the Cosmos and pry out it's secrets.   

As is always the case with our crew, we gathered our audience before we were ready for business, But Bill was set, targeting the crescent Moon while we prepped...

I take some very quick pics of the crescent Moon before the crowds arrive...

Visitors desire very much to attempt to capture the cosmos in their cell phone cameras.  But other than the Moon, other objects are just too faint for a successful snap pic.  

And so we begin our session, displaying the craters on the Moon, bands of Jupiter, reddish soil of Mars....and the beautiful ring structure of Saturn, as ambassadors to the cosmos...

Fellow Staff member/History teacher where I do my daytime gig at a Inner City Charter school, Luis brought out his family for some urban sky astronomy...

We had regular fans and friends come out and join us for this Friday night gathering of Astronomers and scopes...




Fellow Co-Worker Elliot brought along his posse to view planets and share the skies....

I noticed that Roger also was a human light shield for our guests throughout the night....

Scopes were slewing from target to target, bringing in the Solar System down to street level and directly creating a relationship connection between observer and celestial objects...

I was all over the place this session, attending to visitors, slewing the C11 scope, greeting fans and trying to take pics.  Fortunately, Chicago Astronomer Support Crew members Maria & Barbara were part of tonight's session, lest I run ragged...

I dunno what Bill was doing here, but it commands respect as our master sky navigator....

We had lost the crescent Moon, by this time....but still had three planets to share...as well as other spring targets.  I always like to conduct the Mizar-Alcor eye test for our fans...and show them the trinary star system in the eyepiece...

Crowds were steady throughout the session...

Courtesy of Roger

We could go all night, (as Astronomers are known do to), with a large crowd or just among ourselves, but Chicago parks close at 11:00 pm and I made the call at 10:30 to start breaking down gear and packing up.

Some of our Chicago Astronomer fans and crew for the session...

A big thanks to Astronomers, Bill, Maria, Steve and Roger and support crew members Maria & Barbara....of which make Chicago Astronomer events the happening popular events that they are.


Stay tuned for our next Star Party...and as always....

...the skies are free and so are the views.


Solid.