Chicago Astronomers Star Party at Adler, June 28, 2011

It’s been awhile since I was excited about a night of observing as I was all day Tuesday, but I just knew it was going to be a great night. I was anticipating a great session with Joe and the crew at Adler before heading back to Conway Observatory to observe with Chicago Astronomer Tom. Just before leaving for Adler I saw a message from Bill saying he was going to follow me back to Indiana for some deep sky imaging. Even better.

As with others, I was unsure how the parking situation on Solidarity Drive would be, and arrived early to find Rich and Joe already there. We had plenty of time to set up our telescopes and equipment at a leisurely pace, discussing the arrangement of the various finders on Joe’s recently modified C11, webcam astronomy, International Space Station flyover details, and other things. I even brought out my 60mm refractor to check out a blank solar disk. Soon Chicago Astronomers Steve and Bill arrived, and my friend Jerry rode the Blue Line down to join us. Anticipation was building among astronomers and passersby wondering why so many of us were out with telescopes.

Telescope row.

Joe prepping the recently modified C11.

Hillary and Jerry.

Steve and Joe.

Photo credit: Rich Wagner.

Before sunset, we had a couple of interesting fly-bys, one a biplane coming up the southern lakefront, and a Coast Guard chopper that swooped down over North Lakeshore Drive. Our first ISS flyover was at 8:32, but the twilight was too bright to pick it up as it crossed 21 degrees over the northern horizon. Still we had quite a crowd looking for it. Even though I didn’t see Station, I waved anyway. There would be a good flyover after 10 PM.

An interesting fly-by from a biplane.

U.S. Coast Guard chopper. Photo credit: Joe Guzman.

Watching for International Space Station.

Steve looking for ISS. Photo credit: Joe Guzman.

Tommy (behind C11 counterweight), unknown, Joe, me, Hillary, Jerry, Rich. Photo credit: Joe Guzman.

Rich and his monster Zhumell 10" Dob. Photo credit: Joe Guzman.

A look down telescope row. Photo credit: Joe Guzman.

We had a nice Belt of Venus out over Lake Michigan.

Joe pointed out the Belt of Venus to me, but I was already getting pictures.

Waiting for Saturn to pop out of the twilight.

There has been some discussion on the C.A. boards lately about webcam astronomy, with Joe and Rich experimenting with it recently. I have a couple of webcams that I’d like to try, but for now I have a cheap Meade CCD camera that can record either still planetary and lunar images or video. I wasn’t going to record anything, but I knew that with a large crowd on site, showing Saturn live on my laptop screen would go over well while visitors waited to see it in other telescopes. When things were slower, though, I popped in an eyepiece for viewing, because nothing compares the photons reflected by those glorious, icy rings hitting directly to your retina.

Bill has a look at Saturn in the C11. Photo credit: Joe Guzman.

I was running a live view of Saturn through a CCD webcam to my computer, while also running Cartes du Ciel to determine the position of the moons. Photo credit: Joe Guzman.

Of course I was also giving looks at the ringed planet through the eyepiece. Photo credit: Joe Guzman.

Viewing Saturn via webcam is cool, but nothing compares to seeing it through the eyepiece. Photo credit: Joe Guzman.

Saturn, of course, was a hit, but many people wanted more. When I heard Joe talking about Mizar and Alcor, I was quick to slew over to the double star. I really wanted to show M57, but there was so much light pouring down the tube of my Dob that I don’t think anybody but Bill and I saw it.

Bill targets M57 through the glare in Rich's Dob. Photo credit: Joe Guzman.

Viewing M57 in Rich's Dob, while Steve scans the sky near his refractor. Photo credit: Joe Guzman.

Everybody has a good time at Chicago Astronomer star parties. Photo credit: Joe Guzman.

Photo credit: Joe Guzman.

Joe prepares to catch ISS when it passed at 10:08 PM. Photo credit: Joe Guzman.

International Space Station. Photo credit: Joe Guzman.

Time to go. Photo credit: Joe Guzman.

As the second ISS pass approached, I started packing away my equipment. So many times I have to leave Adler star parties early to go to work, but this time I was leaving to spend the rest of the night observing. I told Tom when he started his astrophotography class that I would try to join him after the class ended for extended observing. Tuesday was my first chance to get out there when the class was over, so I felt I owed it to Tom to be back as early as possible. (And, of course, I wanted to get under a dark sky with a big aperture scope). I parted ways with Joe and the guys, and Bill followed us back to the Hoosier state for a few hours of great observing. That story is be posted here.

Full Chicago Astronomer coverage can be found on the links below.

http://astronomer.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=StarParty&thread=3264&page=1

http://elenin.paranomalo.us/2011/06/chicago-astronomer-star-party-at-the-adler-june-28-2011/

Learning the 16" Telescope at Conway Observatory

Last Sunday, March 13, Chicago Astronomer Curt alerted us to a lunar occultation of Mu Geminorum. I wanted to observe it, especially since I had spent a week vacation vacation at home, with no observing time because of weather. On Sunday every forecast I heard on the radio or read online said that night was going to be clear, but what I saw outside and on the satellite images told me otherwise. I ignored my gut feeling, and drove out to Conway Observatory in Lowell, IN. I attended a training class last Friday and earned a key to the observatory. Since Sunday night was the last night of my vacation, and I hadn’t done any observing, I wanted to go out to the observatory and learn the 16” telescope there.

I arrived before 6 PM, but the afternoon’s clouds were refusing to depart. After surveying the premises and deciding not to set up one of my own telescopes on the observing pad, I went inside. I set up my computer and listened to some old observing podcasts to kill time. I walked through the observatory, mentally walking myself through the steps to open the roof and fire up the telescope. 

Calumet Astronomical Society's Conway Observatory.

It was cloudy when I arrived.

I thought about setting up one of my own telescopes on the observing pad, but decided against it.

I checked conditions outside every so often, and just when I thought my drive had been for nothing, I saw the Moon shining through the clouds. I thought about opening the roof then, but noticed the time was 7:50. I double checked the emersion time: 7:53.

I went down to my car to set up my 6” Dobsonian, the easiest telescope to set up in a hurry. Still, by the time I was ready to observe, Mu Geminorum was already emerged from behind the lunar disk. Luna, relentless in it’s orbit, continued to move further east of the star. After getting a few images, I went inside the observatory, opened the roof, and proceeded to get familiar with the telescope.

Images shortly after the emersion of Mu Geminorum, approximately 8 PM CST.

Before I opened the roof. Both green lights on top of the panel need to be lit to move the roof.

It was hazy and cold, not good observing conditions, not to mention that the high, slightly gibbous Moon was casting a glow over much of the sky. Obviously, hunting down faint fuzzies wasn’t much of an option, and I didn’t want the hassle of star charts in the cold. I limited my observations to Luna and Saturn. Yes, I know: all that power and all I used it for was the two objects visible in the sky nearest to Earth. I felt it was observing time well spent, though, experimenting with the telescope controls and eyepieces. I’ll get back out there on a better night and play with the full power of the 16” telescope. 

The 16" Meade LX 200. 

Lunar image taken with the 16" telescope. The picture does not do justice to the view. I felt like I was standing on the rim of Copernicus looking down into the crater!

Five Planets, Fourteen Meteors, and a Sunspot, January 4, 2011

Just two mornings after my first extended observation in two months, I woke up at 2 AM on Tuesday, January 4. I checked Accuweather’s most recent satellite images, and although they showed cloud cover over Valparaiso, they were about an hour old. It looked like the clouds were moving out, so I looked outside and saw a clear sky. It was also much warmer than Sunday morning, 30˚F, with only a 22˚ wind chill factor. The combination of warmer conditions and being out earlier gave me considerably more observing time than Sunday.

While I was out, I thought the session was very similar to Sunday. I observed most of the same targets, spent time getting video of the planets, and stayed out until daybreak. Really though, there was no comparison between the two nights. The global peak of the Quadrantid meteor shower was around sunset, so I spent quite a bit of time just watching for meteors. I also viewed more targets, although it was still cold enough that I didn’t feel like having to look through star atlases. That limited my observing to the easiest of targets, although really, since they tend to be some of the brightest, are the most enjoyable.

As soon as the telescopes and gear were outside about 2:30 AM, I looked up and saw a bright meteor, possibly as bright as -4 magnitude, slowly streaking east to west near the zenith, leaving a short lived tail behind it. After that, meteor sightings were sparse until after 5 AM. I observed 14 meteors between 2:33 and 6:07 AM. The shower seemed to peak between 5:16 and 6:07, when I saw eight meteors despite focusing my attention on Saturn, Venus, and eventually Mercury. At least 3 of the 14 meteors I observed seemed to radiate from points not associated with the Quadrantids, but I counted them anyway.

 Before Orion dipped behind a tree, I wanted a look at the great nebula, but I only viewed it with binoculars. M42 is one of those great targets that is splendid no matter what you observe it with, and might be second only to the Moon as a binocular object. Wow.

I’ve read the ancient Greeks used M44 to predict the weather, and now I understand why. With no Moon, I could actually see it naked eye. How cool! I visited the galaxies M51, M65 & 66 again. I’m dying to see M51 especially in a big telescope.

Meanwhile, Saturn was climbing, and almost begging for attention. With Venus just rising behind a tree, it demanded telescope time. I’ve always said that Saturn is the favorite planet to show at public star parties, but Jupiter should be the favorite for astronomers. Now I’m not so sure. I still have not seen the Cassini Division, but the rings opening has increased my admiration for Saturn. I tried some imaging of Saturn, and while I’m still learning some things about processing, especially videos in Registax, I’m satisfied with the results for now. My biggest disappointment is that I still don’t have the go-to Newtonian back to perfect collimation, so using it for video was out of the question. I’ve worked the collimation closer to where it needs to be, but it wasn’t good enough for imaging. The scope was aligned and tracking better than I’ve ever seen it, so I watched on my computer screen, but didn’t record any video. In the summer it would have been worth the effort to try tweaking the collimation, but I wasn’t going to do it in the cold.

Saturn, stacked from the above video.

Venus was getting high enough for observation and imaging, and even Mercury popped into view. I turned my most of my attention to the inner planets for the rest of the session, but occasionally came back to Saturn. I was also waiting for the Sun to rise, and get high enough for observation. Just before sunrise, however, clouds rolled in, and it looked like I wouldn’t do any sunspot observing.

Venus.




Venus stacked from a video.




Mercury.




First sign of daylight.




Venus above the tree.








A nice Belt of Venus in the western sky.






Clouds came out of nowhere, and killed any thought of early morning solar viewing.

Although it was a new Moon, I was thinking about it quite a bit while I was observing, knowing that an annular solar eclipse was happening over Europe. When I went inside I checked some of the early pictures from the other side of the globe, shared on Facebook by Camilla, the Solar Dynamics Observatory mission mascot. It sort of added insult to the injury of missing December’s solstice total lunar eclipse having a clear sky while an eclipse I couldn’t see was taking place, but at least I was able to enjoy some meteors and other celestial objects.

After warming up and messing around online, the clouds cleared again, so I went outside again for sunspot observing.  It was sunny but cold and windy, 25˚F with a 7˚ wind chill. The major sunspot was 1140, with the group 1142 also crossing the disk. I was out for 25 minutes, plenty of time after my session from 2:30 to 6:40 AM.

Sunspot 1140.

Later that night, I went outside for a quick observing session. Having already seen three planets in the morning, Jupiter and Uranus were my two obvious targets. Uranus had made another close conjunction with Jupiter the day before, so it was very easy to find. The seeing conditions weren’t good for planetary observing though, so I tried the open clusters M35 and M37, the Double Cluster, and the Andromeda Galaxy before putting the telescope away.

Five planets, fourteen meteors, five star clusters, four galaxies, a star forming region, and one sunspot. I think that qualifies as my best day of astronomy so far this winter.