Greetings!
What better way to spend a summer evening than shooting the breeze under shooting stars? Scoot yourself to the lakeshore this weekend with a beach blanket and buddies for some astronomical awesomeness. Why?? Because ISC loves you - and summer.
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Shooting Stars in Our Front Yard
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ISC has used its formidable clout and high-level connections to make special arrangements* for the Earth to pass through the tail of comet Swift-Tuttle this weekend.
(*This part may not be exactly precisely true.)
Peak viewing of the Perseid Meteor Shower will be nighttime through pre-dawn hours of Saturday, Aug. 10th to Tuesday, Aug. 13th. Although Chicago suffers from severe light pollution, it is possible to see some of the brighter shooting stars if the sky is clear and you look northeast, over the lake, during those times. The moon phase, a late-rising waning crescent, also helps; not too bright to interfere with viewing the brightest meteors, provided the sky is clear of clouds. ISC has worked with the smart and kind folks at the Chicago and Evanston Park Districts, who will keep three beaches open late this weekend so you can take your sweetie, or your whole family, to the lakefront to look for shooting stars!** (**This part IS exactly precisely true.)
Saturday, August 10 and Sunday, August 11, 2013
9:00pm - midnight
12th Street Beach (1200 South), Chicago, IL
Montrose Beach, (4400 North), Chicago, IL
No swimming or entry into the water is allowed during these events. (Don't get ISC in hot water with the park district.) Bring a blanket and bug spray and let your eyes scan the skies. Meteor-watching is a patient activity, like fishing, so lie back and relax. You'll likely see only the brightest shooting stars. Contemplate the wonder that is our galaxy. Keep you fingers crossed for clear skies, and Enjoy!
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Adler's Perseid Meteor Shower Star Party
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The Adler Planetarium is hosting a Perseid Party out at Cantigny Park in suburban Wheaton. You can head there and enjoy the beautiful surroundings of Cantigny as meteors shoot through the night sky above. This annual event features activities for the entire family including scavenger hunts, telescope viewing and stargazing, hands-on science demonstrations and activities, and lectures by an Adler astronomer. Monday, August 12, 2013
7:00 - 11:00pm
$9 - Members; $12 - General Public
Day-of at Cantigny Park: $15 members and general public
Advance ticket sales end on Sunday, August 11 at 11:59 pm.
Registration is required. Parking is included in ticket price. Guests may enter the park before the event start time. Picnics are welcome before dusk. No pets (except service animals) or alcohol are allowed into Cantigny Park. The Cafe at Cantigny is open until 10pm. Program will occur rain or shine and no refunds will be granted.
For more information, call the Members' Hotline at 312.322.0332 or e-mail [email protected]. This celebration is part of the Adler's 100 Days of Wonder, a summer-long program that inspires the public to wonder, observe, and discover through programming on-site, online, and off-site at various events.
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Explore your/the Curiosity at Adler
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The Adler Planetarium is celebrating the one-year anniversary of the Curiosity rover on the planet Mars with a series of programs and events. You can check out the full-scale Curiosity high-fidelity prototype exclusively on display through Labor Day, try your hand at Martian geology in a special workshop, and land your own rover in a "Seven Seconds of Terror" activity. (If you never saw NASA's " 7 Minutes of Terror" video, you really must.)
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
9:30am - 6:00pm
This celebration is part of the Adler's 100 Days of Wonder, a summer-long program that inspires the public to wonder, observe, and discover through programming on-site, online, and off-site at various events.
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Celestial Objects in August
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If you are an early morning person, there is some great sky-viewing for you these days. The most brilliant starlike object in the predawn and dawn sky in August 2013 is the king planet Jupiter. Only the waning crescent moon outshines this dazzling world before sunrise right now. You can also see many other bright celestial objects before dawn in August, 2013. The first-magnitude stars Capella and Aldebaran are delectable eye-catching jewels, as is the incomparably beautiful Pleiades star cluster. It'll be more of a challenge to catch the planets Mars and Mercury. If you can't see Mars with the unaided eye, it should be pretty easy to spot Mars near Jupiter in the same binocular field. Get lots more information from the terrific site EarthSky.org and really helpful star charts.
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Put your money where your mind is.
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Illinois Science Council programs are possible thanks to the generous contributions of supporters like you. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation today.
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Select Science Sayings
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Science is everywhere, even when you're not looking.
- Lurleen the Elder
Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.
-Marie Curie
Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition.
- Adam Smith
Science is not about control. It is about cultivating a perpetual condition of wonder in the face of something that forever grows one step richer and subtler than our latest theory about it. It is about reverence, not mastery.
- Richard Powers
Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another.
- Plato
All civilizations become either spacefaring or extinct.
- Carl Sagan
There are no passengers on spaceship earth. We are all crew.
- Marshall McLuhan
There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.
- Douglas Adams
A scientist can discover a new star, but he cannot make one. He would have to ask an engineer to do that.
- Gordon L. Glegg, American Engineer
Last night as I lay in bed looking at the stars I thought 'Where the hell is the ceiling ?'
When you reach for the stars, you may not quite get one, but you won't come up with a handful of mud either.
- Leo Burnett
My goal is simple. It is complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists as all.
- Stephen Hawking
The brain is like a muscle. When it is in use we feel very good. Understanding is joyous.
- Carl Sagan
Innocence about Science is the worst crime today.
- Sir Charles Percy Snow
It's always wiser to side with an overwhelming expert consensus than with a celebrity endorsement.
- Science Creative Quarterly
There is science, logic, reason; there is thought verified by experience. And then there is California.
- Edward Abbey
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