The first Macintosh Astronomy Workshop (MAW I) is now in the books. The MAW was a joint effort between the Illinois Institute of Technology and the Chicago Astronomical Society. It was held in conjunction with the CAS's Astrofest star party. The astrofest site is best viewed with one of the Mozilla-family browsers (Camino). The workshop was held in Chicago on Thursday, September 8th, 2005 in the McCormick Tribune Campus Center. The workshop was attended by 40 people. Many of the registrants coregistered with Astrofest. At the conclusion of the workshop, most of the speakers and attendees traveled down to the Astrofest site in Kankakee IL. The MAW speakers and many of the registrants operated a booth where mac-based demonstrations were held.

The workshop featured speakers describing and demoing the features of numerous mac-based astronomy programs. Featured areas included Image Collection and Processing, Planetarium and Planning Programs, and Telescope Control Programs. While some of the programs are Mac-only, many have Windows versions as well. Much of what you will see is transferable to whatever type of control computer that you use. The image processing tips will be beneficial to all. The Mac mini is a very compact and inexpensive way to convert to the Macintosh way. Its compact size makes it easy to place under a telescope which should make cable knots a thing of the past.

If you would like more information please contact us by email.

Professor Richard Kron (Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the University of Chicago) speaks to the group.

KEYNOTE ADDRESS

Professor Richard Kron, the current director of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, delivered the Keynote Address at the Macintosh Astronomy Workshop. Professor Kron described the survey and recent results. The Sloan Digital Sky Survey is the most ambitious astronomical survey project ever undertaken. The survey will map in detail one-quarter of the entire sky, determining the positions and absolute brightnesses of more than 100 million celestial objects. It will also measure the distances to more than a million galaxies and quasars. The Apache Point Observatory, site of the SDSS telescopes, is operated by the Astrophysical Research Consortium (ARC).

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

All talks (excepting the keynote) were 40 minutes in length with a 10 minute question and answer period. We had a tent at the Astrofest Site beginning Thursday Evening through Saturday night. The Astrofest tent was open to all.

**** Illinois Institute of Technology **** Chicago Astronomical Society **** Fishcamp Engineering **** Imaginova **** Adirondack Video Astronomy/Starlight Express **** Casmir Enterprises, Inc. ****

ASSOCIATE SPONSORS

**** Santa Barbara Instruments Group/Microprojects **** 20/20 Telescopes - The Mac Friendly Telescope Dealer****

Astrofest

The Chicago Astronomical Society has posted images from the 2004 Astrofest. These images show the size of the field and the many vendors that attend. These pictures can be found here. Bring a GPS unit if you plan to wander into the Corn Maze to the right of the observing field.

Astronomy Day at the Adler Planetarium

Apple Computer provided a Mac mini and a professional looking booth for the Macintosh Astronomy Workshops display at the 2005 Astronomy Day Celebration at the Adler Planetarium. Our booth was located next to the sun. Dennis Wierzbicki brought his Meade telescope and a Celestron NexImage camera that he controlled with his 12 inch Powerbook. We demonstrated Astroplanner, ScopeDriver, EquinoX, Starry Night, and iCCD to the people that visited our display. A large contingent of teachers visited and described how their school districts were phasing out Mac support.

The workshop is currently scheduled to be held in the new McCormick Tribune Campus Center. For more information on the MTCC click the above image or to just go to my favorite description of the new MTCC click here.

Logos Courtesy of Duane Deal and Mark Miller

The Apple Logo, Apple, Macintosh, Mac mini are all registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc.

The address of this site is: http://mrmac.mr.aps.anl.gov/~macastroworkshop

The address of the Astrofest site is: http://www.chicagoastro.org