Joining us for the 2nd edition of our new Quarantine Series are astronomers Daniel Joyce and Darren Drake in Chicago, Illinois.
DANIEL JOYCE
Dan studied chemistry and political science at Marquette University and was enrolled in their Navy ROTC program when everything got interrupted by a skiing accident. After 14 months in a cast and a brace he was told by his doctor to find work to help recover from his leg injury. That catapulted Dan into a life-long career in astronomy.
He has been a member of the Chicago Astronomical Society since 1970, has served seven terms as president, and continues to sit on their Board of Directors.
Dan is a founding member of the Northwest Suburban Astronomers and became an original member of the Chicago Society for Space Studies, a local chapter of the National Space Society (formerly the L-5 Society). He became a life member of the Peoria Astronomical Society in 1987 when he completed the primary mirror of – all 101 pounds and 5,200 times the light gathering power of the human eye that it is – for their Jubilee Observatory site. He has worked on various telescope designs at the Adler Planetarium optical shop where he made high precision optics. His claim to fame is a 12-inch telescope he secretly made and gifted to movie director George Lucas.
For the last fifteen years, Dan has been a member of the Chicago and Northern Illinois chapters of the American Meteorological Society. He was a student of WGN-TV’s Tom Skilling, studying the weather from the standpoint of the forecaster and how to recognize severe weather. He once provided details on an errant Soviet spy satellite and since then has been Tom’s astro go-to guy, eventually becoming the writer of the daily Planet Watch column on the Chicago Tribune’s weather page. Dan continues his work as a weather spotter and storm chaser.
Dan taught astronomy and the weather at the College of DuPage for 25 years, and is a former program presenter at the Cernan Earth & Space Center at Triton College.
DARREN DRAKE
Darren earned a Bachelor of Science from Illinois State University where he specialized in astronomy. He has taught in Chicago area schools at the secondary and collegiate level for the past 30 years. He is the former Planetarium Show Operator and Outreach Educator at the Cernan Earth & Space Center, home of a 93-seat planetarium located on the campus of Triton College in suburban Chicago where they host star parties and a monthly skywatch. The center was named after NASA astronaut and last man on the moon, Gene Cernan, a native of nearby Bellwood and Maywood, Illinois.
He spends every summer at YMCA Camp Eberhart in Three Rivers, Michigan where he acts as resident astronomer at the Yarger Astronomy Center, giving campers the opportunity to discover the inner astronomer in themselves.
Darren’s passion is in sidewalk astronomy - setting up telescopes on the street for passers by in downtown areas. He owns an 18-inch reflector telescope and is active and well-known in astronomy outreach throughout the Chicago area.
This interview was recorded on Wednesday, May 6, 2020. It’s 01:52:32 long and 95.1 MB. You can listen to it right here in your browser or download it directly to your computer. It’s also available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, TuneIn, Spotify, and iHeartRadio. And it’s now available on our YouTube channel.
You can also listen to this episode on your Amazon Echo device. Simply say, “Alexa, play Speaking of Jung on Apple Podcasts (or on TuneIn).” Just be sure to pronounce Jung with a hard J.
SHOW NOTES
🔭 Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 102AZ New smartphone app-enabled telescope
Sky Safari The best astronomy app for iOS, Android, and macOS
Heliacal Rising & Setting of Sirius This website calculates dates of heliacal rising and setting of any star visible to the naked eye
Adler Planetarium Chicago, Illinois
Great American Eclipses Upcoming total solar eclipses visible from North America; next one is Apr. 8, 2024
Find Starlink “Check when you can see it!”
Heavens Above Find objects in the night sky
Spot the Station How to see the International Space Station
ESO Telescope Sees Surface of Dim Betelgeuse ESO story + photos
Betelguese is Brightening Again Spaceweather archive story + photos
Betelgeuese on Twitter @betelbot
Comet ATLAS Hubble Space Telescope watches comet disintegrate into more than two dozen pieces; “Because every plague needs a comet.” ~ Clyde Lewis, Ground Zero
Comet SWAN Spaceweather archive story + photos
Hubble: Thirty Years of Discovery Full episode available on the Science Channel’s website
The Face on Mars Photos and articles by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology
The Brightest Planets in May’s Night Sky space.com story
Why 2020 is an Awesome Year for Mars earthsky.org story
Asteroid Apophis Flies by Earth on Friday the 13th in 2029 space.com story
Doane Observatory at the Adler Planetarium
Star Wars by George Lucas (paperback)
Skywalker Ranch Observatory Official website (not much there)
Southern Cross Astronomical Society Winter Star Party in the Florida Keys
“Our psyche is set up in accord with the structure of the universe, and what happens in the macrocosm likewise happens in the infinitesimal and most subjective reaches of the psyche.”
This episode is dedicated to X Æ A-12 Musk