Jul 2018

Financials:

Opening balance June 1, 2018: $2939.24

Dues to Astronomical League based on 38 Club members: $200.00

Ending balance June 30 $2739.24

23 people in attendance including four guests--two came after visiting our booth at Sunfest!

Exchange student visiting Bartlesville in need of housing:

Kristi informed us that an exchange student who is interested in astronomy and is from France is in need of housing. If would like to discuss further, contact Kristi.

Daryl said that July is the month of planets. On July 12, look for Mercury in the west after sunset. On July 27, Mars will be almost as close as it was in 2003 and will be brighter than any other planet except Venus. Venus and Jupiter will be visible due south after dusk. Also watch for M13 in Hercules, the Summer Triangle, and the Milky Way, which is brightest in summer.

Star parties this year: Was going to have one in May, that fizzled out due to weather. Discussed inviting the community at large to the August 18 day at Woolaroc with the Tulsa Astronomy Club; Denise will check into this. [Note post-meeting from Denise: This turns out to be a Woolaroc members-only event, apart from members of our two astronomy clubs who will be presenting; therefore, the BAS will do no publicity.]

Woolaroc event August 18 to start at 1 pm, then conclude with a star party to end at 9 pm. Open to people of all ages. We could perhaps do some crafts starting at 1 pm; Night Sky Network could give us some craft ideas. Woolaroc would like us to be out of the park by 10 pm, so start packing up at 9 pm. Karen collected names of those of our club interested in volunteering to forward to John Land at the Tulsa club. We will find out if we need to bring food, and if we can get in for free as volunteers (Woolaroc charges admission). John Land was scheduled to be at our meeting but was unable to attend at the last minute--he'd hurt his back and didn't want to risk driving up.

The MSRAL June event will be discussed below, but something that came out of this meeting that might result in a Club activity was that three million pairs of solar glasses are being made available to Astronomers Without Borders, to be given to people in South America in preparation for the next total solar eclipse. However, as we discovered last year, not all solar glasses are properly manufactured. The BYA may undertake as a service project sorting through thousands of pairs of solar glasses (not the entire number, but a portion of them) to keep the proper ones, and discard the rest. It was discussed doing this, perhaps, on a Saturday this fall, and possibly combine it with a star party that evening and dinner in between, and BAS adult members could be invited to participate. The possibility of collaborating with the Masons on this was discussed; Abby works with them on their Saturday fundraising breakfasts.

The main program of the evening was to have been on Voyager, presented by Evan Zorn, but the video for his presentation wasn't working--even though he'd come to the library to do a dress rehearsal on Saturday, and even though library staff tried to get it to work Monday night. He will present on Voyager in August instead. And actually this worked out quite nicely in the end because the presentation on the MSRAL convention in Arkansas took up the full evening!

Rick Bryant, Abby and Derek presented on MSRAL:

The host club in Arkansas for MSRAL, Sugar Creek, has 22 members. Sugar Creek has a star party for their community on the first Friday of every month. It's billed as a street walk party and is held next to typical Friday-evening-entertainment venues. About 500-700 people attend events they sponsor every month. They are also hosting a "Hands on the Sun" event September 29. Sugar Creek works with Astronomers Without Borders. They also work with Hobbs State Park in Arkansas, which is the largest of Arkansas' state parks.

Four Bartlesville Youth Astronomy families, plus Rick--10 people in all--attended MSRAL in Springdale, Arkansas, June 22-24. They went up on Friday afternoon and back on Sunday afternoon. Of the meals catered at the event, two were Subway sandwiches (with lots of cookies).

The BYA had their own booth, plus Abby presented on Cassini. All youth who attended won door prizes! One of the group won Daystar Filters.

There was a tractor-trailer at MSRAL set up in the parking lot to do activities for younger kids.

There were only 2-3 youth who actually participated in MSRAL (apart from our group).

Typically 60-70 people attend MSRAL.

A star party was held on Friday night.

A highlight of the meeting was an evening banquet with a two-hour presentation (featuring videos and images) by Dr. David Levy. 90 tickets for the dinner were sold, but about 110-120 people in total attended the banquet; it was "sitting room only" with people squeezed in at the back! Dr. Levy discussed his discovery of some of the 90 comets he had discovered. He also discussed Pluto. He was sad when NASA removed full planetary status from Pluto. The main criteria for a body to be considered a planet are its being round; orbiting the Sun, and having an atmosphere. Pluto met all of these but only 1/4-1/2 of the time. Dr. Levy also autographed books he wrote.

The need for dark skies was discussed at the meeting. There was a Skype session with Connie Walker. It was noted that increased darkness led to an increase in the bat population, which reduces numbers of insects. (Something we could use to support a dark sky initiative in Bartlesville, if we ever decided to do that.) Rick said that it would take a very committed leader for a community like Bartlesville to successfully undertake an initiative like this. The Arkansas Night Sky Association is part of the national Dark Sky Association and has several registered dark sky communities in Arkansas. Their website is http://darkskyarkansas.com.

When Abby presented on Cassini, she included some JPL videos that were not part of the presentation on Cassini that she made to our Club.

Clint, Abby, and Rick were part of a youth panel on Sunday morning.

Scott Roberts, owner of Explore Scientific, and who works with Sugar Creek, interviewed Abby to be a possible Solar Ambassador at a youth convention.

Actual meeting content also included--

Discussions of hydrogen scope spectra on the Sun

Attendees looking at a restored "cardboard telescope", a Dobson-style telescope with regular mirrors but cardboard tubing instead of metal

Volcanoes on Mars are the biggest of any in our solar system

A presentation by a very enthusiastic Caitlin Ahrens of the Center for Space and Planetary Science.

Two of the outcomes of the convention was interest in starting a youth section on the Astronomical League website and a youth group articles in the Reflector. Rick said that the BYA members would be invited to write up possible items to include in such an article, and then these would be jelled into an article and submitted for publication.

MSRAL next year is in Kansas City.