Tomorrow very early, I’ll be leaving for the Astronomical League meeting in Chicago, Illinois, ALCon 2012.
Astronomy Senior Editor Michael Bakich will kick off the meeting with a talk about the last 150 years of amateur astronomy. I will participate as a speaker, too, and also the
Astronomy Magazine Blues Band will be playing, bringing a rock and roll band to a national astronomy meeting for the first time. I’ll be blogging about the meeting each day from Chicago.
Every year, the Astronomical League holds an annual meeting that is loads of fun. The league is the world’s oldest federation of astronomical societies, an umbrella organization that promotes interest in astronomy and backyard skygazing and has more than 200 local astronomy clubs as members.
The 2012 meeting will take place near Chicago July 4–7 at the Lincolnshire Marriott in Lincolnshire, Illinois, about 32 miles northwest of the city center. Although the meeting is centered at the hotel, field trips will take ALCon attendees to some pretty cool places in and around Chicago, such as the particle accelerator at Fermilab, Yerkes Observatory, Adler Planetarium, and the Field Museum. Thursday, July 5, will also feature a special cruise on the tall ship
Windy II on Lake Michigan.
The local organizer is Audrey Fischer, well-known as the creator of
One Star at a Time, a worldwide effort to create accessible public observing places around the world. She is also a light-pollution activist. Fischer has assembled a program of speakers that includes Mike Simmons, president of Astronomers Without Borders; Dave Crawford, co-founder of the International Dark Sky Association; planetary imager Don Parker; night sky photographer Wally Pacholka; Kepler mission scientist Jason Steffen; Adler asteroid expert Mark Hammergren; Field Museum meteorite curator Philipp Heck; physicist Hasan Padamsee of Cornell University; Yerkes educator Vivian Hoette; artist Jeff Talman; light-pollution researcher David Blask; Bakich; and me.
Some special ALCon events will also take place. The Ravinia music festival site in Highland Park will host a star party, barbeque, and chamber music concert. Yerkes will host workshops. On Independence Day, organizers of the event will set off fireworks and hold a star party afterward on the resort golf course. The Midwest Astro-Imaging Conference also will take place during the convention. The North Central Region of the Astronomical League, the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers, and Astronomers Without Borders will all be holding meetings within the event.
As I mentioned, I’m proud to say that the
Astronomy Magazine Blues Band, featuring Megan Bobo and Steve Kryscio with Keith Bauer, Jeff Felbab, Mike Soliday, and me, will play at the meeting. We’ll also have special guest Ron Kovach,
Astronomy’s new managing editor, on Hammond B3 organ and keyboards. We’ll play two sets on Saturday, July 7, one at 5:30 p.m. and the other at 9 p.m. You’ll hear some Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Susan Tedeschi, and more. Get ready for some rock ’n’ roll and some blues!
It will be a special meeting that will celebrate 150 years of amateur astronomy. The Chicago Astronomical Society, a host of the event, is celebrating its anniversary this year. The group was the first amateur astronomy club in the United States, formed in 1862 as the second year of the American Civil War rolled on.
For more on the meeting, see
http://alcon2012.astroleague.org.