October 2019

October 7, 2019 Meeting

27 people in attendance, including 9 guests!

Minutes of previous meeting sent in by Denise Gregg and posted online were approved.

Treasurer’s Report - Evan Zorn:

Beginning balance Sept. 1 $3101.19

Expenditures:

Check to Colleen Buck for BYA supplies $182.72

Donation to First Christian Church for use of two rooms for our storage $100.00

Check to Denise Gregg for making copies of BAS handouts, and Club supplies $213.81

Check for $320.00 for liability insurance

Ending balance Sept. 30 $2284.66

Dues are due in November. $25.00 for individual membership, $30.00 for two people and $40.00 for family of three or more.

Committee reports:

Astronomical League--no updates from the Astronomical League this month

BYA news from Rick Bryant--the group is working on Astronomical League awards. Four youth went to Okie-Tex for stays ranging from two days to one week. They raised $354 for the BYA from donations and from sales of paintings.

Library display--Abby was unable to be at the meeting; no updates at this time

Business cards--Thanks so much to Rick Bryant for designing these! They looked great at our table at Astronomy Day!

Club elections:

Current elected officers as well as appointed positions were approved by the membership to continue for the coming year.

President - Craig Brockmeier

Vice President - Richard Buck

Secretary - Denise Gregg

Treasurer - Evan Zorn

Appointed Positions:

Observing Programs - Richard Buck

Bartian Youth Astronomers - Rick Bryant

Astronomical League Coordinator - Kristi Herrman

Members at Large - Duane Perkins, Karen Cruce

Newsletter - Mike Woods

Website and Social Media - Derek

Meeting Programs - Bob Young

Meeting Arrangements - Daryl Doughty

Craig pointed out that Derek will be leaving Bartlesville to go to college next summer, and he does a lot for the club as our Website and Social Media Wizard! Derek is willing to serve as our Website Wizard for this school year, but someone will need to be trained by Derek to take over when he leaves!

Member photos--Daryl showed us recent images he took of Jupiter and Saturn, taken on July 16 (best atmospheric dates for observation of these planets this summer). Also images of Gemini, Orion (including the Orion Nebula), Auriga, Perseus and the Pleiades; the Milky Way; and the Summer Triangle (Altair, Deneb and Vega)

Craig also passed around the laminated copies he had made of recent images from Rick Buck.

Recent Club events:

Astronomy Day report by John Blaesi--The afternoon at the library went very well with our four presentations and five telescopes on display, including a solar telescope, and our table of handouts with our new business cards. We had altogether about 10 visitors at the library. The star party in the evening had to be cancelled due to weather. Kristi posted this on the Club site and also on the Club Facebook page.

Okie-Tex report by Rick Bryant: It went very well this year compared to last year, when there was a lot of rain. They had excellent observation sessions and even saw dinosaur tracks in the area.

The St. John's School party in September went very well. It was surprisingly dark given the downtown location, and the weather was great. We estimated that about 35 people attended--12 BAS/BYA members and their families, 3 St. John’s teachers/administrators at least, about 15 youth plus several parents and friends of teachers. More guests than BAS/BYA members! The group observed the Moon, Jupiter with four moons, Saturn and Neptune.

Upcoming events:

Members' star party at the Bolinger's on October 26

Star party for Wayside School--Shelly Buhlinger, a science teacher at Wayside, came to Astronomy Day and talked to Denise and Craig about having a star party for the school's fifth graders. Rick Buck will work on this with Shelly.

Civitan club lunchtime presentation--A member of the Civitan Club who goes to Denise's church asked for a Club presentation at their November 8 lunchtime meeting at Bambino's downtown. Denise will give her recent presentation on Meteor Showers as well as a summary of BAS.

Main presentation--Life in the Universe by Virgil Reese

Virgil presented a summary of the scientific conditions--as we understand them--that would be needed for life in the universe, apart from what is on Earth.

He began by reviewing certain aspects of life on Earth: Viruses compose most of Earth's living material and may also be one of the earliest forms of life. Virgil then reviewed various forms of life in the depths of oceans--life there suggests diversity and strangeness. He discussed the bioluminescent octopus: perhaps the closest thing we have to alien intelligence. Bioluminescent octopi are descended from a type of small worm.

Arthur C. Clark stated that either we are alone in the universe or not--and both of these options are equally terrifying!

Virgil discussed the Drake equation--the probability of contactable civilization besides our own. Criteria that make up this equation include: the number of civilizations in our galaxy that we might be able to discover; the rate at which stars are born; the average number of livable worlds per planetary system; the fraction of livable worlds in which life arises; the fraction of livable worlds with life that encompasses civilization and technology; the fraction of civilizations that broadcast their existence; and the average duration of signaling civilizations.

How would we determine whether or not there is life out there? Via telescopes.

The Hubble has helped us discern the age of the universe and its expansion rate. In a very small "empty" part of the sky, it found 5,500 galaxies!

The Spitzer space telescope, an infrared telescope, orbits the Sun and, with its 2 feet 9 inch mirror, is a "planet hunter". The TESS satellite (transitory exoplanet survey satellite) was launched in 2018 at a cost of $200,000,000. The James Webb space telescope launch has been postponed until 2022, as of now. This telescope, larger than the Hubble, is designed to study the birth and evolution of galaxies and the formation of stars and planets. The cost of this telescope will be more than $10 billion, but this does not seem such a great expense when compared to the $27 billion that the U.S. spends a year on video games!

The Allen Telescope Array (ATA) in northern California, was designed to have 350 6-meter dishes but only half of them have been built and are operating. It could survey 1 million stars for SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) emissions and detect an Arecibo signal.

Possible areas where life might exist:

The Moon?

Mars--NASA Rover in 2020 will study its surface geology, past and present, including assessing past habitability and looking for any evidence of past life.

Other moons:

Of Jupiter--

Europa

Callisto--has subsurface ocean?

Ganymede--has magnetic tidal forces

Io--has volcanoes and a small atmosphere

Of Saturn--

Enceladus--organic compounds have been detected in bursts from this moon.

Titan--has atmospheric chemicals similar to Earth.

Dione--has an ocean under its crust?

Of Neptune--Triton. Has liquid water?

Of Pluto--Charon: Has an ocean? Appears to be geologically active.

Next meeting: November 4. The presentation at this meeting will be Astronomy and State Parks by Nick Conner, Park Manager of Osage Hills State Park.

After the meeting tonight: Braum's on Hwy 75 opposite Food Pyramid