Oct 2018

  • Attendance: 20 people in attendance, including the Bolingers who hosted a very successful star party in September.

  • Financials:

Beginning balance Sept 1, 2018: $2,474.24

Four New memberships and One renewal: $170

BYA reimbursement to Rick Bryant for BYA meeting supplies: <$22.32>

Ending Balance Sept 30, 2018: $2,621.92

  • The Federal info form 990 N for non-profits was submitted and accepted online for FY 2017-2018, done 7/6/18.

  • The Oklahoma info form 512 E was also done 7/17/18, mailed USPS.

  • Evan Zorn was voted in as next Club treasurer.

  • There was agreement that we could donate 100.00 to the Friends of the Parks in Bartlesville to further cement our interest in using Civitan Park for star parties.

  • International Observe the Moon Night October 20: Denise will work with others on the star party team to see if we can get something set up at the Community Center.

  • Star party at Bolingers’ ranch September 14: Very successful evening. Had about 15 people, clear weather, and saw a number of planets, deep sky objects and meteors from the Southern Taurids meteor shower. The Bolingers also served us some wonderful snacks!

  • Tulsa Rocketry Day at Pawhuska September 29: Rick Bryant reported that 7 BYA youth families participated, and the BYA did 30 rocket launches! Star party afterward.

  • Karen made a recent trip to Hawaii and showed images of a three-quarter Moon and Saturn and Jupiter that she took there.

  • Abby’s news highlights:

  • A team of scientists used NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper instrument data to identify three signatures that definitively prove there is water ice at the surface of the Moon.

  • New data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory reveal the presence of very bright X-ray sources, most likely binary systems powered by either a stellar-mass black hole or neutron star, in the remarkable ring of the galaxy AM 0644-741. In this composite image, X-rays from Chandra (purple) have been combined with optical data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope (red, green, and blue). Image credit: X-ray – NASA / CXC / INAF / A. Wolter et al; optical – NASA / STScI.

  • This full-disk image of Jupiter was taken on 21 April 2014 with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3. Image credit: NASA / ESA / A. Simon, Goddard Space Flight Center.

  • Though it’s still 172 million km from its target, the New Horizons spacecraft has caught a first glimpse of Ultima Thule, a mysterious Kuiper Belt object.

  • New Horizons may have seen a hydrogen wall just past the edge of the solar system, where the solar wind meets the stuff of interstellar space.

  • A team of astronomers has observed a new phenomenon in the aftermath of SN 2012au, an extremely energetic supernova discovered on March 14, 2012, in the barred spiral galaxy NGC 4790.

  • The VLT Survey Telescope (VST) at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile has captured an amazing new photo of a nebula known as NGC 3199.

  • New Exoplanet discovered extremely close to its star HD 26965b

  • Abby has applied for a patent to create a buffer for humans against galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) and solar proton events (SPEs). Cosmic rays are high-energy radiation, mainly originating outside the Solar System[1] and even from distant galaxies.[2] Upon impact with the Earth's atmosphere, cosmic rays can produce showers of secondary particles that sometimes reach the surface. Composed primarily of high-energy protons and atomic nuclei, they are of uncertain origin. A solar proton event (SPE), or "proton storm", occurs when particles (mostly protons) emitted by the Sun become accelerated either close to the Sun during a flare or in interplanetary space by CME shocks. The events can include other nuclei such as helium ions and HZE ions. These particles cause multiple effects. They can penetrate the Earth's magnetic field and cause ionization in the ionosphere. The effect is similar to auroral events, except that protons rather than electrons are involved. Energetic protons are a significant radiation hazard to spacecraft and astronauts.

  • Main presentation—Lunar Geology & Stratigraphy by Bob Young

    • Bob discussed basic concepts of geological stratigraphy and related them to lunar features and lunar geological history.

    • Law of superposition— in any undisturbed sequence of rocks deposited in layers, the youngest layer is on top and the oldest on bottom, each layer being younger than the one beneath it and older than the one above it.

    • Law of cross-cutting—the geologic feature which cuts across another is the younger of the two features.

    • For rock to be modified or faulted, it must first exist as a unit older than the faulting event.

    • Embayment—a rock unit can flood into another. The one being flooded into is the younger.

    • There is a tendency for craters to become darker as they are exposed to the lunar surface over time. Lighter rays in craters indicate fresher, brighter reflectivity. Also, darker color can indicate basalt lava flow.

    • Older craters tend to have more rings.

    • Craters can also show layers of magma that have generated in multiple layers over time.

    • He showed a spectral response false-color map with three color filters from Dec. 8, 1992. White color indicated ray material, blue contained more titanium than orange. Red contained lower levels of titanium.

    • He showed charts of USGS mapping, pre-Apollo.

    • He then showed us a number of lunar images with seas, plains and craters including the Archimedes Crater and Mare Imbrium and, using the techniques of lunar stratigraphy, asked us to explain the features and which layers were older than others. We were asked to evaluate craters with fewer layers, more layers, and varied densities. Mare Imbrium is one of the oldest and largest lunar basins.