The Lake County Astronomical Society

AUTCL - Aspen Drive - Vernon Hills (rescheduled for May 27th)
2026-05-21 20:00 - 21:00 (America/Chicago) | Aspen Drive – Vernon Hills Library, 701 Aspen Dr., Vernon Hills, Il, 60061
This event is being rescheduled to May 27th due to cloud cover.
Astronomy Under the City Lights is a free to all-ages event presented by the Lake County Astronomical Society in cooperation with local libraries. LCAS volunteers will bring sophisticated telescopes to allow the public to view the Moon and other objects in the sky.
Visitors are welcome to view at any time during the scheduled hours, and stay as long as they want. No registration is required. Groups are welcome.
In the event of bad weather we have a back up date of May 27.

AUTCL - Aspen Drive Backup Date - Vernon Hills
2026-05-27 20:00 - 21:00 | Aspen Drive – Vernon Hills Library, 701 Aspen Dr., Vernon Hills, Il, 60061
This event was originally scheduled for May 21st, but had to be rescheduled due to cloud cover.
Astronomy Under the City Lights is a free to all-ages event presented by the Lake County Astronomical Society in cooperation with local libraries. LCAS volunteers will bring sophisticated telescopes to allow the public to view the Moon and other objects in the sky.
Visitors are welcome to view at any time during the scheduled hours, and stay as long as they want. No registration is required. Groups are welcome.

Why Doesn’t Our Sun Just Explode? Or, Why has It Lasted So Long?
2026-06-19 19:00 - 21:30 | Volo Bog, 28478 W.Brandenburg Road, Ingleside, IL, United States
The Speaker at June’s Monthly LCAS meeting will be Mark Christensen, PHD. The space race inspired him to earn degrees in both mathematics and physics while an undergraduate at Wayne State University. He earned is Masters in Physics at Purdue and his PhD in probability at Wayne State University He joined Northrop Corporation’s Defense System Division in Rolling Meadows, Illinois. He retired from Northrop Grumman’s Rolling Meadows plant in 1999 as Vice President of Engineering. Throughout his professional career Mark remained active as an amateur astronomer
We all have heard that our Sun produces energy by the fusion of hydrogen and other nuclei. And we have known for nearly two centuries that how much energy it produces every second, and we know from our experiments, theories, and tests that fusion reactions can produce large amounts of energy. And we know this has been going on for billions of years. But when we examine the facts carefully we realize that the sun really doesn’t produce that much energy considering its considerable mass. In this talk we’ll explore why this is so and will look into the details of the fusion reactions going on in our star, including on-going research in this area – we still don’t know the whole story.

AUTCL - Fremont
2026-06-22 20:00 - 21:00 | Fremont Library, 1170 N. Midlothian Rd., Mundelein, IL, 60060
Astronomy Under the City Lights is a free to all-ages event presented by the Lake County Astronomical Society in cooperation with local libraries. LCAS volunteers will bring sophisticated telescopes to allow the public to view the Moon and other objects in the sky.
Visitors are welcome to view at any time during the scheduled hours, and stay as long as they want. No registration is required. Groups are welcome.
In the event of bad weather we have a back up date of June 24.

LCAS Monthly Meeting: Wonders of Web: Exploring the Universe with JWST
2026-07-17 19:00 - 21:30 | Volo Bog, 28478 W.Brandenburg Road, Ingleside, IL, United States
The Speaker for the July meeting of the Lake County Astronomical society will be Jim Kovac. Details TBD

AUTCL - Grayslake
2026-07-21 20:00 - 21:00 | Grayslake Area Public Library, 100 Library Ln,, Grayslake, IL, 60030, United States
Astronomy Under the City Lights is a free to all-ages event presented by the Lake County Astronomical Society in cooperation with local libraries. LCAS volunteers will bring sophisticated telescopes to allow the public to view the Moon and other objects in the sky.
Visitors are welcome to view at any time during the scheduled hours, and stay as long as they want. No registration is required. Groups are welcome.
In the event of bad weather we have a back up date of July 23.

AUTCL - Wauconda
2026-08-18 19:30 - 20:30 | Wauconda Library, 801 N. Main St., Wauconda, IL, 60084
Astronomy Under the City Lights is a free to all-ages event presented by the Lake County Astronomical Society in cooperation with local libraries. LCAS volunteers will bring sophisticated telescopes to allow the public to view the Moon and other objects in the sky.
Visitors are welcome to view at any time during the scheduled hours, and stay as long as they want. No registration is required. Groups are welcome.
In the event of bad weather we have a back up date of August 20.

AUTCL - Lake Villa
2026-09-17 20:00 - 21:00 | Lake Villa, 140 N. Munn Rd, Lindenhurst, IL, 60046
Astronomy Under the City Lights is a free to all-ages event presented by the Lake County Astronomical Society in cooperation with local libraries. LCAS volunteers will bring sophisticated telescopes to allow the public to view the Moon and other objects in the sky.
Visitors are welcome to view at any time during the scheduled hours, and stay as long as they want. No registration is required. Groups are welcome.
In the event of bad weather we have a back up date of September 22.

Presentation by Dr. Wayne Osborn of the Yerkes Observatory
2026-10-16 19:00 - 21:30 | Volo Bog, 28478 W.Brandenburg Road, Ingleside, IL, United States
The monthly meeting of the Lake County Astronomical will be a presentation By Dr. Wayne Osborn. He will talking about the Glass Plate Collection which has been taken using the Great 40″ Refracture at the Yerkes Observatory. These plates go back to the late 1800’s and have been preserved to this day. Dr. Osborn has many years working with and cataloging these images. This event is free and open to the Public. Please join us.

Afterwards Members of LCAS will show the Night Sky to attendees through their powerful telescopes (weather permitting)

AUTCL - Warren Newport
2026-10-19 19:30 - 20:30 | Warren-Newport Public Library, 224 O'Plaine Rd, Gurnee, IL, 60031, United States
Astronomy Under the City Lights is a free to all-ages event presented by the Lake County Astronomical Society in cooperation with local libraries. LCAS volunteers will bring sophisticated telescopes to allow the public to view the Moon and other objects in the sky.
Visitors are welcome to view at any time during the scheduled hours, and stay as long as they want. No registration is required. Groups are welcome.
In the event of bad weather we have a back up date of October 21.

AUTCL - Indian Trails
2026-11-17 19:30 - 20:30 | Indian Trails Public Library, 355 N. Schoenbeck Rd, Wheeling, IL, 60090, United States
Astronomy Under the City Lights is a free to all-ages event presented by the Lake County Astronomical Society in cooperation with local libraries. LCAS volunteers will bring sophisticated telescopes to allow the public to view the Moon and other objects in the sky.
Visitors are welcome to view at any time during the scheduled hours, and stay as long as they want. No registration is required. Groups are welcome.
In the event of bad weather we have a back up date of November 19.

Space: The Year in Review
2026-11-20 19:00 - 21:30 | IL
The Speaker for the November 20th meeting of LCAS will be Larry Boyle. Mr. Boyle has been pretty much of a yearly feature. His Presentation “Space: The Year in Review” is sure to be an interesting and educational talk. Please join us.

Weather permitting LCAS Members will setup telescopes at the Volo Bog and show attendees the night sky.

Asteroid Mining
2027-05-15 19:00 - 21:30 | Volo Bog, 28478 W.Brandenburg Road, Ingleside, IL, United States
Larry Bartoszek from the Chicago Society for Space Studies has written a book on Asteroid Mining and will give his presentation to LCAS. Details to follow.
