November 2016
Financials:
Annual dues due now!
Beginning balance Oct. 1 $1696.27
2 new members (including one student) $30.00
4 renewals $80.00
Ending balance Oct. 31 $1806.27
About 25 people in attendance this evening.
2017 astronomical calendars: Karen brought what we’d ordered in advance and members paid for them. Thanks so much Karen for ordering them for us!
Storage space for astronomy club:
Steve is going to look into this. Need long term storage and not just for papers or other documents—need it for multiple telescopes as well. We do have some boxes from the Night Sky Network that need to be stored, as well as a number of telescopes now at Mike Woods’ house. Steve is hoping we might be able to do something like maybe a 1 year lease for $100.00 or so. He’ll see what we can do.
Board elections for 2017:
President—Jerry Koenig
Vice President—Karen Cruce
Treasurer—Vicky Travaglini
Secretary—Denise Gregg
Each was elected unanimously by acclamation. It was pointed out that students do not have voting rights, and famiy memberships only get one vote. It is a tribute to how the club has grown over the last year in that in previous recent years, pointing this out would be moot! We wish to thank Steve for his outstanding service as President, and welcome Jerry in that role!! Over the last year we have increased membership, started the youth group with Rick and Abigail’s leadership and had several star parties.
Speaking of star parties, Steve said that the Girl Scouts have told him we can meet at Wah-Shah-She whenever we would like (with advance notice to them).
Abby’s astronomy news highlights:
Orbiter brought supplies to the Space Station on Oct. 17
3 astronauts have recently returned safely to Earth from the Space Station
New galaxy discovered in Cassiopeia
Slow spinning newborn star discovered in RCW13 supernova. Dusty disc of material seen around the young star.
Hubble has produced a new image of the NGC362 globular star cluster
It was previously thought that there were 100 billion galaxies, but we now know that ten times too low an estimate—there are two trillion galaxies out there!
A map is being made of hydrogen atoms in the Milky Way galaxy
New planets discovered 88.5 billion miles from our Sun
Voyager II has found 2 new moons orbiting Uranus. They are 4-14 km across. Uranus has 27 other known moons.
She showed beautiful images of UV glow from the Martian atmosphere, termed “night glow”
She showed a close up image of the metal “egg rock” on Mars taken Oct. 28.
10% of quasars are surrounded by halos
Pinterest login: youthbastro@gmail.com, password astronomy
Supermoon Nov. 14. Look around 6:30-7 am for maximum size, although it will be getting ready to dip below the horizon.
Main program—Fran Stallings “Moon Tales”
Fran told stories from a variety of cultures, some short, some a bit longer.
A quick one: Which is more important, the Sun or the Moon? Answer—The Moon, because it is a night light when you need it!
A longer one--An African story about the Sun, Moon and their children, the stars. The Sun went to visit the Ocean. But then the Sun didn’t invite the Ocean over in return. But then the Sun asked the Ocean to come over, and the Ocean said no, because the Sun’s house was too small. So the Sun added rooms to his house and his wife the Moon and their children the stars did a lot of cooking in preparation for the Ocean’s visit, and Ocean said he would come. So the Ocean came uphill to the Sun and Moon’s house and the house became knee deep in water. The Ocean and the fishes kept coming—then the water was waist deep and then it got as high as the roof and the water still kept coming. So the Sun and Moon and their children the stars had to jump into the sky to save their lives. The Moon and Sun divorced over this and that’s why you don’t see them together as much anymore, and the Moon got custody of the star children.
A story from China:
A male god lived in the Sun and his sisters on the Moon. The sisters created beautiful embroideries on the Moon in the shapes of birds, flowers, landscapes and more—they were exquisite. The sisters wanted their privacy so they covered the Moon in designs. Then the sisters went to their brother to switch houses--they went to live on the Sun. And to this day when you try to look at the Sun and your eyes sting, that is because of the sisters’ embroidery needles clicking away on the Sun.
A story from Estonia—
In the dark of night, if the moon wasn’t out, another light was needed. So a metal smith made something of silver so bright but what happened then was that it was too light for people to steal things, and that meant that not as many thieves were killed. So then they had demons start jumping up to the moon to put tar on it to make it darker but they only got the moon tarred part way up before the demons fell back into the trees.
Fran demonstrated to us an elegant Japanese paper fold illustrating the monthly lunar cycle!
A story from Mexico—The Sun admired the Moon, who was more cool and aloof. She liked her night life—the stars and the frisky planets and the Milky Way. The Sun fell in love with the Moon and sent a matchmaker to try to woo the Moon for his bride. The Sun was a very persistent suitor. Finally the Moon agreed that she would marry the Sun but only if the Sun could have made for her an absolutely exquisite wedding gown that must fit perfectly. The Moon figured the Sun wouldn’t be able to come up with this, so she wouldn’t have to marry him. So the Sun’s matchmaker felt around her “waning” waist to measure its size, and returned to the Sun who had a dressmaker make an exquisite gown accordingly. But then when the Moon tried it on it was still too big—the Moon’s waist was now just a sliver--so the Sun’s dressmaker took it in some more. But then when the Moon tried it on again, it was now too small! So the seamstress took it out again—adding in more panels that had previously been removed—and when the Moon tried it on again her waist had grown even more so it still didn’t fit! The Sun gave up, and the Moon continues to live on her own!
A Japanese story—a newlywed couple lived at the groom’s father’s farm. The groom took the good rice harvest to town and with the money he hoped he would make, he intended to buy gifts for his family and his new bride. The bride had told him that she wanted a silver comb for her hair, in the shape of a young sickle moon—that was all the rage. The groom did sell the rice in town and he got the best possible price. He bought poetry for his father, silk for his mother, and toys and candy for his little brother. When he went to buy the gift for his bride, the shop lady said to buy a mirror in the round shape of the full moon instead, so that is what he did. So then when he went home and presented his gift to his bride, she was furious because when she looked in the mirror, she saw the image of an “other girl” that her new husband must surely have courted in town. When the bride had her mother in law look, she said not to worry—the image was of a much older woman. When the groom’s father looked into the mirror, he saw a very mean man, and then when the little brother looked, he saw a boy who wanted his toys and candy—so he broke the mirror!
A story from the Pacific Islands—
If you choose the Moon to help create life, it shrivels up, and then comes back again
If you choose a banana plant to help you create life, the trunk eventually dries up but there are shoots that come up all around and start new banana plants. So if you want to have children, choose the banana plant to help you.
A variant on this story from Melanesia—
Instead of a banana plant choose a coconut palm, and then the fruits—the coconuts—will roll far away! Which would be a good thing if you don’t want your children close beside you!
In many cultures the lunar calendar was a culture’s first calendar and is seen as a sign of rebirth.
Next month’s program: December 5, a presentation on meteors by a PhD out of Tulsa. She has worked at OSU, now at TU as an independent contractor.
Daryl will work on a presentation on globular clusters for 2017.