December 2021 Meeting Notes

Bartlesville Astronomical Society Meeting Minutes

December 6, 2021

• Opening and Welcome

• Thank you to Denise Gregg for Zoom setup

• 12 in attendance including one recurring visitor

• Announcements

• Library is available for meetings!

• We plan to meet in person in January and advertise via the yellow sheet, newspaper and the Sparklight/Cable One TV announcements.

• We have meeting room C booked for Thursday, January 6. (January 3 the library is closed for New Year’s, and the following Monday is the FBS final game.)

• Minutes of previous meeting are posted online by Denise Gregg - Approved

• Treasurer’s Report - Evan Zorn

Ending balance October 31, 2021: $7500.66

24.99 to Apple for SkySafari purchase

Ending balance November 30, 2021: $7475.67

• We will pay dues for 2022 in January

• Need to submit hours for 2021 volunteer grants now if eligible and have not done so.

• Evan and Denise need to work on PayPal link to pay dues online

• Committee Reports

• Astronomical League news and activities - Denise Gregg

• Denise pointed out that registration for the drawing to participate in the annual Texas Star Party are due on January 5. The star party will take place April 24-May 1, 2022 near Ft. Davis, TX. (Note: Denise said at the meeting the registration for the drawing was January 6; it is actually January 5.) If you are interested in attending, please contact Denise and she can forward you the email she received. The registration process contains a number of steps, including extra protocols for COVID-19.

• Youth club (BYA) news - Rick Bryant—Rick was not in attendance as the combined November-December BYA meeting took place at the same time as this BAS meeting. At the last meeting, only two youth were in attendance.

• Library Display - Update

• If you have items on display, plan to pick them up at the First Christian Church later

• There are 2 levels in storage - Who is the owner?

• We are booked to have a display in May 2022.

• Denise has volunteered to coordinate this project but others need to participate.

• Denise will schedule an initial planning meeting on January 8, 2022. We will meet at Eggberts as that worked well for us in 2019. Denise will send out an email about this. We need ideas for a theme!

• Dark Sky committee - John Blaesi

• We made sky quality measurements at OHSP. 21.3 or better

• Jo Allyn Lowe - 19.93

• Need volunteers to take measurements

• bvilleastro+darksky@gmail.com

• Old Business

• No other old business was brought up

• New Business

• We need participation of members! Do we want to call members?

• First Christian Church may be donating their building to the city. We use two of their rooms for storage. We will have to see how this progresses.

• Star parties

• In person; members only

• We discussed doing something if Comet C/2021 A1 Leonard is visible this month in early evening

• Elections:

• The current incumbents for President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer agreed to serve for 2022. No other nominations were received.

• Denise sent out an email prior to the meeting soliciting votes ahead of time, for those who would be unable to attend the Zoom meeting December 6. No votes were received by email.

• Denise contacted two Club members who have little/no Internet access by telephone before the meeting and they approved for the current incumbents to serve for 2022.

• The incumbents were elected by those present at the meeting:

• Craig Brockmeier—President

• Rick Buck—Vice President

• Denise Gregg—Secretary

• Evan Zorn--Treasurer

For the two appointed at-large Board positions, Duane Perkins said he would continue, and Karen Cruce had told us she would resign. John Blaesi agreed to replace Karen Cruce and this was agreed on by all Club members present at the meeting.

• Dues

• Should we extend memberships again?

• Ask if people want to be dropped from membership?

• Active members should pay

• Need Astronomical League coordinator - Kristi Herrman

• Denise Gregg is filling in

• Need web wizard and social media wrangler - Derek Herrman

• Denise Gregg is filling in

• Need someone with Facebook and Twitter skills

• Our old bvilleastro@yahoo.com email address – Denise will work on deleting this.

• Astronomy News and Events

• Lunar Eclipse November 19. Denise showed some images she took of this.

• Comet Leonard

• Astronomy News - Abby Bollenbach

• Abby is making presentations for Astronomy magazine.

• Latest are “The Voyager Missions” and “What are Quasars?”

• View at http://astronomy.com select the Videos tab

• Astronomy Club of Tulsa

• December 10 – In person at Jenks Planetarium 7:00 p.m.

.Michael Hann - Radio Astronomy

• https://astrotulsa.com

• Cosmosphere

• https://cosmo.org

• Kalamazoo Astronomical Society Zoom meetings - kasonline.org

• Meeting is January 7 at 6pm CDT via zoom

• “Psyche: Journey to a Metal World” - Dr. David Williams

• Remote telescope viewing on January 29 - 8:30pm CDT

• Astrophotography Special Interest group

• December 17 7:00pm

• Imaging Automation with Sequence Generator Pro

• Register at https://kasonline.org

• Introduction to Amateur Astronomy - January 15 12:00-2:00 CST

• Great class - Register now!

• Meteor showers

• Geminids - December 4-20 Peak December 13 50-150/hour

• Ursids - December 22 10/hour, but nearly full moon

• Quadrantids—January 2-3, predawn

• Upcoming astronomical events

• Comet Leonard

• Club Events

• Star parties: Rick Buck

• Girl Scout Observing Event at Wah-Shah-She - Reschedule sometime

• Maureen of the Tulsa GSA

• They will possibly have an eVscope

• Star Party for Dewey School - TBA

• St. Lukes - TBA

• Wayside school - TBA

• Others?

• Osage Hills First Light – Not planned for January 1, 2022—hope to have this January 1, 2023.

• John Blaesi - upcoming events

• Jo Allyn Lowe Star Park - John Grismore

• OHSP?

• Observing reports

• OHSP

• Went to OHSP a few times.

• Member photos

• Ceres

• Lunar eclipse

• Comet Leonard

• Others

• Tonight’s Program

• Chicxulub Crater - Bob Young

• The Chicxulub impact led to the formation of a crater, about 200-km wide and 1-km deep, on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. Over a period of hours after the impact the ocean re-entered and covered the impact basin beneath several hundred meters of water. An expedition drilled into the peak ring of the crater and recovered about 130 meters of impact deposits and a 75-cm thick, fine-grained, carbonate-rich “Transitional Unit”. Above this unit, normal marine sedimentation resumed. Bob discussed the historical geology of this impact by an asteroid or meteorite, including the presence of iridium brought to Earth by the asteroid or meteorite. Formerly known primarily as the K-T boundary (Cretaceous-Tertiary), it is now known as the K-Pg boundary (Cretaceous-Paleogene). Bob showed a picture of the boundary taken as far away as Denmark!

• Adjournment

• Next meeting - January 6. Denise will present on “A Year’s Worth of Meteor Showers”.

• TBD - Betty Keim interested in another meeting

• Volunteers needed for upcoming meetings - Bob Young

• Ice cream at virtual Braum’s!!!

• Motion to adjourn