October 2013

Treasurer’s report: Beginning balance Sept. 1: $1410.70. During the month paid the $320.00 annual liability fee which covers us until Sept. 2014. Ending balance Sept. 30 $1161.07.

Vicky also sent out new bylaws to the IRS. She noted that Oklahoma does not require us to file bylaws.

She also noted that membership dues are due in November. Please bring your check to the next meeting for $20.00, made out to the Bartlesville Astronomical Society. If you can’t be there, please mail it to V. Travaglini, 2408 Chapel Hill Rd, Bartlesville OK 74006.

Club secretary: Denise Gregg was elected by those present to be the new club secretary. It was decided after the meeting that she will also be in charge of publicity, i.e. getting notices of our meetings put into the yellow sheets.

Next meeting: November 4 at 7 pm in the library. Program TBD. Members are asked to please bring ideas for future programs, the annual dues, and consider if they would be willing to be club treasurer as Vicky’s term is now up.

Presentation to schools: Wesleyan Christian has asked us to do something January 8. This is in the works but don’t have details yet.

Astronomy news:

Sunspot activity is tapering off, although there was a huge coronal mass ejection Sept. 29. We are now entering a monder minimum period, expected to last 50 years, with fewer sunspots and global cooling.

Jupiter is now in Gemini in the early morning (i.e. around 5:30 am).

Venus, Saturn and Mercury are in the WSW after sunset.

Dark Sky certification—a possible future club project?

The latest edition of The Astronomical League featured an article on the International Dark-Sky Association. They offer a certification program whereby a town may become an International Dark Sky Community. If the BAS decides to pursue this, it would be a multi-year project involving the whole community--i.e. City Council, police and other emergency personnel, builders, homeowners, landlords, shopkeepers, billboard makers, schools, etc. Denise offered to prepare a presentation to the club on this early next year (Feb/March) if there was some initial interest--and there is. Daryl said he had already talked to the city some time ago about fixing up a streetlight so he could better view the night sky with his telescope—he ended up covering part of the light in some way. John Grismore said that the Tallgrass Prairie preserve had thought about becoming an International Dark Sky Reserve some time ago but didn’t pursue it—but time passes, things change and perhaps they might now be interested. As of now, there are no Dark Sky Association local chapters in Oklahoma—the nearest are in Arkansas, Austin and Denver. We would form one. John also pointed out that the key to presenting this to the City Council would be the eventual lower electricity costs—which we would have to work up an estimate for and document in advance!

Program—The Moon, Myth, Song and Fact, presented by Daryl Doughty

There was a Blue Moon on August 20. There is more than one scenario for having a "Blue Moon": a 2nd full moon in a calendar month, or a 4th full moon during a summer season. We had 4 full moons this summer. The Blue Moon this year was bigger than last year’s (Daryl slowed a slide with one Moon transposed over the other.)

Daryl said there is not much evidence to support full moons causing violence.

We sang along to a couple recordings of songs featuring the Moon that Daryl had prepared visuals for as well, and watched a video clip of the 1941 movie "The Wolf Man".

Lunar facts:

The Moon is ¼ the size of Earth. It is the largest satellite of a planet in our solar system, when you compare the planet’s and satellite’s relative sizes. It is the 5th largest satellite in our solar system.

The Moon is 3474 km diameter; Earth is 12742 km.

The Moon’s density is 3.35g/cc; Earth’s is 5.5g/cc.

The Moon’s iron core is 600 km in diameter; the Earth’s is 6800 km.

The oxygen isotopic composition of the Moon and Earth are very similar. No other bodies in our have the same oxygen isotopes. Other elemental isotopes of Moon and Earth are also similar.

The Moon is moving away from the Earth at the rate of about an inch a year.

Here are 5 theories about how the Moon was formed:

  1. God created it. Read Genesis I.

  2. A sister world formed in orbit with the Earth at the same time. The Moon’s smaller core would go against this theory, however.

  3. Formed somewhere else and captured by Earth’s gravity. (George Darwin, son of Charles Darwin, supported this theory.) However, the angular momentum of the Moon would go against this theory.

  4. Spun off a prototype Earth, as the Earth was spinning fast and blew the Moon off

  5. A giant impact—a Mars-size body collided with the Earth and eventually the Moon formed from material spun off as a result of the impact. This is the most current theory. The body that struck Earth has been coined "Theo", named after the daughter of Celine, the Moon goddess. The oxygen isotopic similarity of the Moon and Earth would lend credence to this theory.

See you at the next meeting on November 4!