Chicago Event Recaps!

Motorola Innovation Center Tour
Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Behind-the-Scenes Tour of Miller Park

Yerkes Observatory
October 21, 2006

The tour of the observatory was very educational. We learned about Charles Yerkes and how he decided to invest in the observatory and how George Hale came to his vision to build the largest telescope in the world at the time. Basically the big money in astronomy was on the east and west coasts at the end of the 19th century and Hale and Yerkes wanted to upstage the coasts.

The optics came from France and the tube was build here in the United States. The tube was finished first and was exhibited at the Chicago Worlds Fair in 1893. It generated a lot of interest and astronomers started to make plans to use the telescope as soon as it became operational. We also learned that the dedication was delayed by a number of months because of damage to the observatory floor. The damage was the result of wind oscillations when the dome was left open during the night. By the way, the floor is an elevator that moves up and down so people can stand right at the prime focus. It is the largest elevator in the state of Wisconsin. Hale went on to build the Hooker telescope on Mt. Wilson in Los Angeles. The telescope mirror was 100" and was the largest telescope in the world at the time. Hale's last telescope was the 200" on Mt. Palomar half way between Los Angeles and San Diego. However Hale died a few years before the telescope saw first light in 1948. It also was the largest telescope in the world.

After the observatory tour, some of the group gathered at Houlihans, which is in downtown Lake Geneva, for lunch. We talked with Harold Matz, whose son is a Freshman this year, about our experiences at Rensselaer. The weather and the time prevented us from taking a boat tour of the Geneva Lake surrounds.











First Annual Send-Off Picnic for the Class of 2010!
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Old School Lake County Illinois Forest Preserve

The Chicago picnic was a great success. We had 29 people total. The atmosphere was very relaxed, and the weather cooperated. The families talked to each other a lot. The picnic planning committee members Bill Wheeler ‘94, Ramsey Badre ‘65 and Lon Blumenthal ‘70 spend a lot of time with each family individually and then in small groups sharing their experiences and answering questions. The food was great, the raffle went great, and the two hours went by very quickly.

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