Northern Lights: Grant Park Music Festival

See the world premiere of "The Legend of the Northern Lights" by Grammy-nominated composer Christopher Theofanidis, inspired by the children's story on the origins of the aurora borealis. Journey to the arctic with awe-inspiring images by astronomer Dr. José Francisco Salgado shown on a state-of-the-art screen.

Jay Pritzker Pavilion
Friday, August 8, 2014, 7:30pm – 9:30pm
Saturday, August 9, 2014, 7:30pm – 9:30pm

Grant Park Orchestra
Carlos Kalmar, Conductor

Rachmaninov: Symphony No.2
Theofanidis: The Legend of the Northern Lights (World Premiere)
Program Notes PDF
Friday's concert will be broadcast live on 98.7WFMT and streamed online at wfmt.com.

Adler Planetarium staff will be on hand in the SE corner of the Great Lawn each night with fun activities for the whole family. Learn more at adlerplanetarium.org!

Ascendance

from Henry Jun Wah Lee / Evosia on Vimeo.
Shot in Joshua Tree National Park and the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest during the Perseid meteor shower. Features ancient trees, lightning, rainbows, meteors, the Milky Way, and lots of stars. Play full screen so you can count the meteors! Enjoy!

Download the soundtrack for free, courtesy of Justin Durbin: http://www.edgenmusic.com/edgen_fields_of_honor.mp3

Music is "Fields of Honor" by Justin R. Durban, www.justindurban.com

Ascendance is a tribute to nature's unpredictable power and beauty. I went out to film the Perseid meteor shower but I encountered so much more. When you are out there, you never know for sure what nature will bring. Always be ready for a magical experience. :)

Film is shot, directed, and edited by Henry Jun Wah Lee

Conway Observatory - Mar 14, 2012

Conway Observatory - Mar 14, 2012, a set on Flickr.

Cinchel Accompanies the Sun at saki

Friday night, glitch drone artist Cinchel @cinchel finished our evening of music of the spheres with a 20 minute set accompanying video of the Sun from NASA's Solar Dynamic Observatory. It was rad.

Here's a 4 min video clip shot on my SLR. A bit shaky, but you get the idea I hope.

I also shot a few low light pictures.


The whole set of my photos is available here.

Cinchel posted the video he used plus his live recording of accompaniment. Dig it.
Sun/Requiem from cinchel on Vimeo.

Solar Fox accompanies the Universe at saki

Last night, Solar Fox opened our most cosmic in-store so far. Here's a video taste shot on my SLR. Apologies for the darkness, but it was...dark in there for obvious reasons.

Here's one of the still photos.
Check out the rest of the photo set here.

Solo astronomy and the Horner Park coyote

I love astronomy.

For better or worse, pursuing astronomy entails significant stretches of solo observing. Whether you have really honed in to study a particularly unusual lunar feature or have decided to follow the Great Red Spot as it transits across the striated gaseous atmosphere of Jupiter, minutes can turn into hours more rapidly than you would think. When this lost time phenomenon happens in the safety of your living room or the shared public space of a movie theater, we don't give it a second thought. When it happens in the darkest corner of a public park, it pays to have at least some sense of awareness.

I always lose myself in the skies for long periods of time. When I am at the park by myself, especially after hours, I do my best to remain cognizant of my surroundings. I have an internal clock that reminds me to stop, take a break, and gather info about my surroundings, including anyone or anything that has moved into hearing or visual range.

Jamaican Astronomy Outreach

Julia and I spent a week recuperating on the southwest coast of Jamaica last week, at one of our favorite spots on the globe, the lovely little farming and fishing village of Treasure Beach.

Treasure Beach has always been a great place to stargaze, but since the astronomy bug bit me, I do my best to carry some sort of viewing apparatus with me wherever we go, even if it's only a small pair of binoculars. Working with neighborhood kids, friends, a teenage nephew, young cousins, and The Chicago Astronomer crew has also shown me that the never ceasing wonders of astronomy are frequently much more fun when shared with others than when being the stereotypical solitary astrocrab.

I grabbed a cheap $60 Celestron 70mm travel scope, my copy of Terence Dickinson's "Nightwatch," a few spare eye pieces and off we went! Needless to say, the skies down there defy explanation, especially when we're so used to Chicago's five visible stars.

The highlight of the astronomy week came last Thursday when some students from Sandy Bank Elementary and their principal came to Jake's for an hour or fun and learning about the sky. We took a few pictures and I wrote up the experience on the Chicago Astronomer boards. Go check it out.

Seen the Rings of Saturn Lately?

Members of The Chicago Astronomer will set up telescopes tomorrow, Wednesday April 3, at 8pm outside Adler Planetarium.

Chicago Astronomer sessions are ALWAYS FREE and FUN.

Saturn

SATURN TAN by Sullij1, on Flickr

What's Inside a Black Hole

Considering there's a super massive one sitting just over there in the center of our galaxy, The Milky Way, maybe you've wondered? I have. Since we would be torn apart by gravity before getting anywhere close to the event horizon, this is likely as close as any of us will ever come to seeing inside.

Travel to Saturn

I love astronomy. I will do my best to post only the coolest of the cool stuff I run into. I think this counts.

In 2007, the leader of the Cassini imaging team, planetary scientist Carolyn Porco, gave this talk at TED highlighting images of the coolest planet, rings, Titan, and Enceladus.


Now, an admirable lunatic, obviously deeply moved by this presentation, has recreated this talk in stop action LEGO minifigs, including the faces of the audience! Uh, yeah.

Flying to Saturn: Carolyn Porco in LEGO from 20Tauri on Vimeo.

Planetary scientist Carolyn Porco - or rather, her Lego doppelgänger - takes you on a fascinating journey with Cassini-Huygens, a space mission investigating Saturn and its intriguing moons. This stop-motion animation is a recreation of Porco's real-life presentation from the 2007 TED conference. (Maia Weinstock, 2010)

No. I'm serious.

Two Nights of Astronomy in Chicago

Ever stop and wonder if there was anything up there at night? I mean, beyond the horrible light pollution of the sodium street lamps? Well come find out!

Saturday and Sunday around 7:30 pm.

We will have Saturn, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Andromeda Galaxy, Ring Nebula, and the rising Moon at 8:21 pm. 

As an added treat, the ISS will make two passes during our session - with the brightest one at 8:19 pm.

If free, stop by and join the crew and a nice warm evening of looking up.

Northern Lights and the Perseid Meteor Shower

Update! The aurora forecast has just been updated to include Wednesday and Thursday nights as high activity!

The Sun is waking up to give us aurora and we are blessed with a large meteor shower around the time of the new moon! A good week!

First, the aurora borealis (Northern Lights). When a large coronal mass ejection (CME) occurred on Sunday, astronomers first predicted that it would have little or no effect upon us Earthlings. Yesterday, they said they were wrong, and that we would in fact be passing through a good chunk of the charged particles streaking through the heavens. Presto! Northern Lights!

When stars are eating planets you might as well buy some records

It was bound to happen, eventually! The universe can handle only so much before it deploys random stars out to devour planets whole. Good thing it's reported to take 10 million years to completely swallow the planet (and a good thing it's not our earth). That's a long, long, long, long meal of destruction. However, it is likely that the Discovery Channel (nea, the End- of-The-World-is-Nigh Channel) will run some heavy-handed program on this in the future, warning us of our potential impending doom, you may as well buy some records. RIGHT?!?!

While I can't vouch thatLPs will prevent your (our) solar onslaught, but they will improve your (our) time here on this lil' lump of earth two and threefold! Coincidentally, Time Out Chicago interviewed me yesterday about the two bands that could improve Lollapalooza this year. My response?

Disappears ("Lux" out now on Kranky)

.....and Slayer (their fans have nothin' to lose!).

You know I'm right.

Free Star Party Tonight!

If you've never seen Saturn through a decent telescope, it will change your life. Last time I was there, a woman who was walking by with her family nearly started crying when she saw it through the C11. I feel that way almost every time, too, even on my tiny scope.
Unless something comes up, I am planning on being there with scope in hand. Looking forward to meeting more interesting people and fighting through the glare. Come say hi!
Chicago Astronomer mini star party15 May 2010
The Chicago Astronomers are planning to conduct a mini star party by the Adler Planetarium area on this warm Saturday evening. But clouds are threatening to ruin a good night for looking up and sharing views of Saturn, Mars and the Crescent Moon.