May 2019

May 6, 2019 Meeting

Attendance: 22 people in attendance, including one new member and our guest speaker for the evening, Ian Mitchell.

Treasurer's Report:

Beginning balance April 1, 2019 $3,682.81

Income -0-

Expenses <$15.00>

Ending balance April 30, 2019 $3,667.81

Other Business:

  • Notes from April meeting approved as posted.

  • Followup on Tulsa Air and Space Museum and Planetarium (TASM) show for the Club in March:

    • Craig thanked them following our very successful private planetarium show, and they said we should do this again! Maddie Butler loved the card we presented to her. She has it on her wall and enjoys looking at it, especially the youth signatures!

    • Volunteers are needed for future meeting programs at Club meetings. Please contact Bob Young to volunteer.

    • John Grismore is working on a Club survey for members.

Astronomical League News - Kristi Herrman

  • She was not able to be present but gave us her news in advance which we presented on her behalf. Her news: Registration is ongoing for the 2019 Mid-States Region Astronomical League (MSRAL) Conference, which will take place June 14 through 16 in Kansas City. Visit msral.org for links to information and online registration. Early registration is encouraged, and those who register by May 12 will be entered in a drawing for a pair of Celestron Skymaster binoculars. The conference will feature a Star-B-Q at Powell Observatory in Louisburg, Kansas, plus speakers, workshops and activities (still to-be-announced), and a banquet.

  • Rick Bryant said last year five youth families attended MSRAL. Rick attended last year himself and would like to attend this year, but he will be unable to do so. He encourages people from BAS/BYA to attend.

  • The Astronomical League's national convention, ALCON, will be held in Albuquerque in 2020.

BYA Report - Rick Bryant

  • This month the BYA program will feature asterisms and studying star size and color.

  • Rick also advised us that Kristi Herrman, who has been the faithful note-taker for the BYA meetings (with Derek as her backup) is stepping down from this post. He encouraged all of us to thank her for all her contributions to the BYA!

  • Rick told us that Abby presented on Cassini/Huygens at the Tulsa Astronomy Club monthly meeting on April 5, at the Jenks planetarium. Craig also attended this meeting. Craig reported that Abby's presentation was very well received by the Tulsa club; so much so, in fact, that plans are in the works to prepare a "canned" version of her presentation that could be used by the Tulsa planetarium, the Jenks planetarium, as well as other planetariums (Cosmosphere?) for planetarium shows! Craig said that the BYA is getting quite a reputation beyond Bartlesville. People in the Tulsa club marveled that BYA attendance at monthly meetings typically is 20-25 youth; the Tulsa club typically attracts only 1-2 youth per month. Craig credited Rick Bryant and others for all the work they have done on behalf of the BYA!

MSRAL Tulsa 2020 - News from Abby: Peggy Walker has asked the Club to help with the MSRAL convention to be held in Tulsa in 2020, dates TBD (probably in the latter part of May, or sometime in June). Peggy would like there to be a representative from our Club designated as a contact specifically for this convention. This representative would be expected to attend organizational meetings for the convention in person or by email or Skype. There is an initial kickoff in-person meeting in Tulsa (time and place TBD) on Saturday, May 18. As of right now, the Club is not helping as a Club per se with this convention, but members are free to do so on their own. Abby plans to help with the convention.

Ad-Hoc Storage Committee - Update from John Grismore and John Blaesi: They are working with the First Christian Church on getting a climate-controlled storage area for our equipment at the church. This area would likely be initially on the second floor of their building, where we would go through the equipment we have, decide what to keep and inventory it, and then move it to a smaller room on the ground floor, for easier access.

Owasso Methodist Church Vacation Bible School - Update: Rick Bryant was going to try to contact them this past month but was unable to do so. Craig had already indicated to them that a star party presentation by us for them during their June VBS week would likely not work out, due to not getting dark until very late, so we decided to drop this potential activity at this point.

BYA Fundraiser: Abby is taking orders for chocolate-covered strawberry roses made by BAS member Martha Lemay. These gorgeous creations will make the ideal Mother's Day gift for your mom, wife, sister, or other important woman in your life. Martha is generously offering single-wrapped roses for $8 each. You may choose between pink, red and yellow roses. You can pay by cash or check, and all orders must be paid in advance. If you order, you will be sent a reminder to pick up your roses on Sat., May 11th from noon-3pm @ Dr. Lemay's office, 3400 Tuxedo Blvd. Please contact Abby, Martha or Lashawn for any questions.

Update on Club Newsletter mailing for those who don't have email: If you don't have email and aren't receiving the Club monthly newsletter prepared by Mike Woods, please get with Derek to update your mailing address.

Bartlesville Library Program Request for Summer Reading Program, "A Universe of Stories", organized by Laura Pryce:

    • Fran Stallings, BAS member, is doing a presentation of stories.

    • Abby is organizing a program of comet necklaces and solar system hats on June 4 at 1 pm.

    • Craig and Abby are organizing a presentation on June 14 at 2 pm on the BAS-donated telescope, which library patrons can check out, and Abby will do her presentation on Cassini-Huygens.

    • Others in the Club are invited to participate!

Bartlesville Library request for Display Case: Daryl Doughty has been contacted by the library to see if we would like to prepare an exhibit for the library's display case some time in 2020. The library needs to know by June 30; we took a quick vote and it was agreed that we should do this!

Sunfest May 31-June 2 at Sooner Park: Denise circulated sign-up sheets for setup, manning the booth on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and teardown. Setup will be Friday, May 31 at appx 10 am (exact time TBD by Sunfest organizers). We will man our booth in two-hour shifts on Friday, May 31 from 3-5 pm; Saturday, June 1 from 10 am-6 pm, and Sunday, June 2 from 10 am-2 pm, then teardown at 2 pm. It is possible that on the Sunday, if the weather is good and we are having a lot of people stop at our booth, that we might start teardown a bit after 2 pm if everyone staffing the booth and doing the teardown are amenable. Evan Zorn has volunteered his pickup truck to use for transporting our booth gear to and from Sunfest.

Denise passed out the prototype banner design sheet from Rick. He will need to order Club banner soon in time for Sunfest.

Denise and Craig will make copies of our updated BAS one-page summary sheet and our 6-page handout for Sunfest.

TASM Aviators Ball: Craig and Denise attended this fundraising event for the TASM on May 4. Astronauts Tom Stafford, Harrison Schmitt, and NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine attended and offered remarks at the dinner. They also got to visit with them in person. Normally this annual ball is attended by about 200 people; this year, due to the presence of the illustrious guests, it was about 600!

Star Party at the Bolinger's on April 27: Rick Buck and John Blaesi reported on the very successful star party held at the Bolinger's ranch on April 27, with ice cream! We saw a variety of nebulae, clusters, constellations and galaxies, and did excellent photography. Thank you to our hosts, Bob and Glenda!

Member Photos:

    • Karen Cruce--images of the Southern Cross and Orion taken from Australia near Uluru in Australia (also known as Ayers Rock)!

    • John Blaesi--has developed a calendar for 2019 and 2020 highlighting good nights for star observation. (These can be found on the BAS website, under About, on the Files page.)

    • Daryl Doughty--showed images he has recently taken of M3 globular cluster in the constellation Boötes, the Omega Centauri globular cluster in the constellation Centaurus, and images of recent sunspot activity.

Abby's astronomy news compilation for May:

    • Mars is volcanically active.

    • The Rosetta Nebula has been designated by the state legislature as the Oklahoma astronomical object!

    • Abby's monthly news is on Pinterest, use login bvilleastro@gmail.com, password astronomy.

Main Presentation by Ian Mitchell: He presented on the topic of "Improbable Calls and Beyond--Macro to Nano to Macro--Making Interstellar Space Travel a Biological Option".

Next Meeting - Monday, June 3: "Stargazing and Public Outreach" by John Grismore