Skokie Valley Astronomers

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COVID-19 (new coronavirus) Update

The Ryerson Welcome Center, a unit of the Lake County Forest District, is closed until at least May 31. The Skokie Valley Astronomers May 8 meeting will be a live, interactive online meeting for members. More information will be available in the week of May 3rd.

The Lake County Forest Preserve District has canceled all programming for the month of May. The District staff will notify us about possible closures in June at the end of May.

For now, we are on the schedule at the Ryerson Welcome Center for our June 12 meeting. We sincerely hope for a happy face-to-face meeting in June.

Welcome!

Skokie Valley Astronomers is a club devoted to amateur astronomy. We meet at 8 PM on the second Friday of every month at the Welcome Center of Edward L. Ryerson Conservation Area (also known as Ryerson Woods) in Deerfield, IL, a part of the Lake County Forest Preserve District.

All of our meetings are open to the public. You're invited!

Click here for a map and directions.

Our meetings usually start with a presentation on some aspect of astronomy, and then we move outside for viewing the sky if the weather permits. Many of our members bring telescopes to each meeting, and they love to let everyone have a look. If you're interested in amateur astronomy, or even if you're just curious, please come to one of our meetings.

Click here to find out if a meeting has been cancelled. The notice will be updated before 3 PM on the day of the meeting.

Ryerson Woods

The Ryerson Woods web site has a detailed map of the park itself. Choose "Trail Map" or "Directions" under "Maps".

Ryerson Woods Welcome Center
21950 N Riverwoods Rd
Deerfield, IL 60015

Longitude: West 87.91556° = 87° 54′ 56″
Latitude: North 42.18194° = 42° 10′ 55″
Altitude: 200 m = 656 ft

Weather for Ryerson Woods from weather.gov: reporting site near 42.18N, 87.92W.

Club Affiliations

Our club is a member of The Astronomical League .

The North-Central Region of the Astronomical League (NCRAL) provides a newsletter, Northern Lights. Click on the Newsletter Archive link of the NCRAL Welcome page .

Our club is a charter member of the Affiliates Program at the Adler Planetarium . Through this program, the Adler hopes to cultivate strong relationships with local astronomical societies and groups. Adler Affiliates receive museum benefits for their organizations and individual members in exchange for support of Adler priority projects, including membership, volunteers, public astronomical viewing, publicity, and community relations.