November 2019

November 4, 2019 Meeting

20 people in attendance including 2 new members and our guest speaker. Several attending were members who don't come as frequently--it was good to see them!

Minutes of previous meeting posted by Denise were approved.

Financials:

Ending balance Sept. 30 $2284.66

Added $384.00--Donations to BYA at Okie-Tex. (BYA sold some things at Okie-Tex, plus they got some donations at Okie-Tex.)

Ending balance Oct. 31 $2668.66

Dues are now due for the coming year:

Regular adult membership $25.00

Student membership through college: $10.00

Family of two: $30.00

Family of three or more: $40.00.

Astronomical League updates from Kristi Herrman: She recently sent an Astronomical League newsletter to all members. Of note in that newsletter is that ALCON 2020 will be held July 16-18 in

Albuquerque at the Embassy Suites Hotel at 1000 Woodward Pl NE, 87102.

BYA update from Rick Bryant: They are focusing now on Astronomical League awards including Sky Puppy and Polaris. And with earlier, winter nights, they will be spending more time outside working on identifying constellations and other objects. Four BYA families attended Okie-Tex and the youth who attended will be giving 5-10 minute presentations on the event at an upcoming BYA meeting.

Update from Abby on our library display next April: She is planning a creative brainstorming kickoff meeting at 10 am on Nov. 23 at Jude's. Anyone who would like to help with this project, come to this meeting! We will do a mural with painting/drawing/beads/other? We could also put telescopes in the display case, and our banner.

Name badges and letterhead: Rick Bryant will start to work on these, after the successful launch of the new business cards!

Board meeting: Craig would like to schedule a board meeting for some time in November or December to start working on the New Year's Resolutions for the Club. The Board members think that Tuesday nights would work but a date was not set. He asked Bob Young if we could meet during an evening at Our Savior Lutheran.

Abby's astronomy news highlights:

Abby presented recently on Quasars and Pulsars for the St. Louis Astronomy Club. Her presentation was very well received!

She attended a presentation by Neil deGrasse Tyson!

New Astronomical League calendars are available for purchase at $13 each. The funds raised will go toward ALCON 2020.

And in news from a little farther away--

Cyanide (CN) gas has been detected in the coma of interstellar comet 2I/Borisov, which was discovered August 30 this year. Hydrogen cyanide (HCN) was broken apart by sunlight.

Elon Musk of SpaceX set out SpaceX's Starship ambitious launch timeline in September. A launch with a crew could be as early as 2020, but not likely.

A circumstellar disk has been observed around two young binary stars--with a total mass of eight Jupiters!

NASA's Insight on Mars picked up the sounds of two earthquakes that took place deep underground! Twenty earthquakes on Mars have been detected to date and the sounds of these last two are audible through headphones--3.7 and 3.3 quakes on the Richter scale. The Mars crust is a mix of the Earth's and the Moon's.

Three galaxies are on a collision course--along with giant black holes at the center of each of them. This has been observed by astronomers at NASA for the first time. This is taking place a billion light years from Earth.

NASA is working on a rocket engine powered by nuclear fission. Would be twice as efficient as current rockets. Because toxic waste would be produced, considerable safety protocols would be needed. 2024 launch, maybe?

On October 18, an ISS spacewalk of about 5.5 hours' duration was conducted by two female astronauts, Christina Koch and Jessica Meir. This was the first space walk by two women only.

She showed an image of part of the construction of a fully programmable quantum computer.

Club Events:

Star parties--Rick Buck

Rick wasn't in attendance but others filled in.

Since the September meeting:

The star party at Bolinger's was a great success; an unusually clear night. Craig mentioned that Andrew in the youth group brought a list of objects to locate...and then went about finding them!

The Girl Scout event on November 2 was held at the Girl Scout office in town, as prospective Scouts were invited to attend, and the age range for this event was younger--girls K-5. They enjoyed seeing the Moon, Jupiter with 4 moons, Saturn and the Dumbbell Nebula. Four BAS members came; two brought telescopes.

Upcoming:

Denise will present on the Club and on meteor showers at the Civitan Club lunch meeting Nov. 7 at Bambino's downtown.

Mercury Transit Nov. 11 6:59 am-12:04 pm (weather permitting). Didn't have an update on this from Rick Buck.

Dewey School event Nov. 15--more details not known at this point

Star party for Wayside School Dec. 6, planned with Shelly Buhlinger, 5th grade teacher: This is planned for 6-9 pm at the school for the fifth graders. [Late-breaking news: We will have to reschedule this event as Shelly says the Wayside School staff Christmas party is that date. She said that no other December dates would work for the school; she would like to plan something in January or February.]

Member star party Nov. 23--think will be in Okesa but details not worked out yet. At this point, save the date.

St. Luke's School would like us to do a star party for them on a Wednesday evening from 6-8 pm. Date not set yet.

Member photos:

Rick Bryant showed images of the Milky Way taken at Okie-Tex. Gorgeous.

Main program--Astronomy and State Parks by Nick Conner

Nick Conner has been working at Osage Hills State Park for 11 years, as a park ranger and park superintendent. Previously, he was a police deputy for Osage County but enjoyed his night shifts so much--he even observed the aurora borealis for a two-hour period one night--that he chose to leave the police force and do park work instead. Nick discussed how much he values dark skies and he has been working in the Park to achieve this; as lights in the Park are replaced, he is putting in lights that focus downward which are more night-sky-friendly.

Nick gave us a presentation on the history and development of state parks in Oklahoma. They began with the establishment of the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1933. The first state park in Oklahoma was Lake Murray State Park, established in May 1933.

Development of Osage Hills State Park was begun in 1935/36 and was completed in 1940. It is a 1000-acre state park, featuring cross timber highlands (black jack oak and post oak) and prairie grasses. It's been known as a "cast iron forest"--a "physical barrier" due to the black jack oaks and post oaks--with only three inches of topsoil. Underneath the topsoil is sandstone--the Park used to be at the bottom of an inland sea. The Park is also subject to the weather patterns that arise from dry mountain air coming from the west hitting warm moist air coming from the southeast and the Gulf of Mexico. The trees that live in the Park are smaller, shorter, scrubbier trees, due to the bad soil and prevailing weather conditions. By the streams in the park, though, there are hickory, sycamore, white oak and bur oak trees.

The Park has 1,100 acres with picnic tables and shelters, 20 RV campsites and 8 cabins, swimming pool, hiking trails, ball field and tennis court. Abundant fishing can be found in Lookout Lake, or in Sand Creek at the south end of the park. There are 15 species of fish regularly found in the Park, and there can be up to 33 species. Sand Creek is actually a clear creek, which might not be implied by its name!

There are 35 state parks in Oklahoma comprising 11 ecoregions. These state parks provide economic development for our state, through tourism and other business, and ecological, social and family well-being. Six of the original seven state parks are still open. The parks offer 5 lodges, 7 golf courses and 402 miles of trails. The parks cover 61,625 acres--.14 of the acreage in Oklahoma. Ten of the parks have park naturalists and nature centers. More than 80% of the parks are self-sufficient. The state parks receive millions of visitors every year; Nick said that one family who lives in San Diego has started coming to the park 5 times a year just to enjoy it in the various seasons!

Nick discussed the New Year's Day 12:01 a.m. midnight and 1 p.m. afternoon hikes. Last year they actually put out small trail lights on the midnight hike...and it took them quite a while to pick them up afterward! There was some initial discussion about Club members participating in the midnight hike, and possibly bringing telescopes!

December 2 meeting presentation TBD. All members are encourage to present topics--get in touch with Bob Young to arrange.

Braum's after the meeting!