June 3, 2019 Meeting

June 3, 2019 Meeting

Attendance: No guests today; 20 people in attendance.

Treasurer's Report (Evan Zorn):

Beginning balance May 1, 2019 $3,667.81

Income: One new membership 25.00

Expenses: Reimburse Rick Bryant for BYA supplies <134.60>

Ending balance May 31, 2019 $3,558.21

Upcoming Club Events:

  • Social event after tonight's meeting, at Braum's (the one just south of Price Road on Hwy 75). (About a dozen people came to this social!)

  • Star parties (Rick Buck): Rick is looking at doing something possibly June 23 or 28, and/or the weekend of July 26-28. Jupiter and Saturn would be highlights.

  • Next Club meeting: July 1 in conference room B (first floor) in library. (The August meeting will be in conference room B also.) The program will be presented by Craig Brockmeier on Apollo 11.

  • Future Club meetings: Volunteers needed to do presentations! Contact Bob Young if interested in presenting.

Other Business:

  • Notes from previous meeting approved as written by Denise and posted online by Derek.

Astronomical League News (Kristi Herrman): No "new" news. Can still register for MSRAL in Kansas City, held June 14-16.

Bartian Youth Astronomers News (Rick Bryant): Rick was not present at this meeting, but Abby reported the sale of chocolate roses for Mother's Day raised $136 for the BYA.

Club Interest Survey Results (John Grismore and John Blaesi): They presented the results of the survey, which have already been posted on the Files page of the BAS website. Link: 2019 BAS Member Survey Results

  • 27 out of 57 members (47% of membership) completed the survey.

  • Top Club event interests are, in descending order: Monthly meetings, Club observing events, workshops, public observing events and informal get-togethers.

  • In a 2010 BAS member survey, these were the individual member interests, in descending order: Star gazing, telescope observing, public outreach, astronomy software, imaging, Sun/Moon/planets, binocular observing, astronomy education, eclipses, comets, cosmology, telescope making, meteors, space, deep space objects, black holes, and navigation/timekeeping.

  • In the 2019 survey, the top overall member interests (greater than 50% of membership) were, in descending order: astronomy education, Sun/Moon/planets, telescope observing, star gazing, deep space objects, eclipses, imaging, and space exploration.

  • In the 2019 survey, the "somewhat interested" range of member interests (35%-50% of membership interested) were, in descending order: astronomy software, astronomy history, binocular observing, youth outreach, comets, constellations, cosmology and public outreach.

  • In the 2019 survey, topics of lower interest (less than 35% of membership) were, in descending order: black holes, meteors, DIY, mythology, navigation/timekeeping, telescope making, and "other".

  • For methods of communication, about 63% of members prefer multiple methods of communication, while about 37% of members prefer a single method. By far the most preferred method of communication is email (almost 100% of members), followed by (between 20%-40% of members) Facebook, texting and Google group messages; and then (by less than 5%) Twitter, phone call, or "other".

  • To the question of "If the Club provides text messages, what information would you like to receive", the responses were (in descending order, ranging from a high of about 65% to a low of about 15%): event notices, ad hoc viewing opportunities, meeting notices, "I don't want to receive texts", planned viewing opportunities, and general club information/updates.

  • About 52% of Club members read the Club newsletter some of the time and 44% read it all the time.

  • Almost all members (96%) said Club meeting date and time worked for them.

  • No one who is not a Club officer indicated an interest in becoming an officer. Bob Young noted that he is willing to continue to be program chair as long as members are satisfied with the programs and are willing to provide them!

  • In the free-form Suggestions for Improvements and Comments, the most frequent comment was that the Club is doing well and appears more active than it was a few years ago.

  • Other survey comments received were:

    • We need to be aware of the make up of our membership and age distribution of our members.

    • We have a small group of doers and a larger group content to attend meetings, viewing events.

    • Having the main speaker earlier on the agenda.

    • There is a need of some elementary education.

    • I would like to see more viewing activities.

    • More observing events, improved communication.

    • The newsletter for the Baton Rouge, LA club is stellar. It's very interesting and very useful.

    • More newsletter articles - even if they are taken

Storage Committee (John Grismore and John Blaesi): They have done an excellent job in working on this! We have available to us a large room on the second floor and a smaller one on the first floor of the First Christian Church. The BAS Board has approved accepting the storage offer; the Club voted to proceed; the agreement will move to signing.

Sunfest: Thanks were given all around--to Rick Bryant for designing the eye-catching new banner, and for supplying new logos for the 6-page handout Denise and Craig worked on, as well as the updated BAS one-page summary sheet. Thanks were given to John Grismore for making the QR code sheet which he suggested laminating; he also suggested laminating the BAS summary page. Thanks were also given to Kristi Herrman for updating the existing online newsletter sign-up and Denise for organizing our booth. Denise and Craig got waterproof bins to hold supplies and are in the process of outfitting these with supplies which will stay with the bins in the new storage area.

Bartlesville Library - Display Case for Exhibit in 2020: The Club agreed to do this, and Abby volunteered to chair the committee, which she will form. The Library needs to know by the end of June which display case the Club would like to use, what would be the preferred month, and what would be the topic of the display.

Bartlesville Library - Program requests from Laura Pryce for June/July "A Universe of Stories" Summer Reading Program:

  • June 4 at 1 pm: Abby will do comet necklaces and solar system hats; need helpers!

  • June 10 at 2 pm: Fran Stallings will present stories for children

  • June 14 at 2 pm: Abby will present on Cassini/Huygens and Craig will present on telescopes

Fran Stallings - Portable Planetarium: Fran may have this available in Bartlesville to do a presentation with on June 22-23. Would we want to have a show or demonstration on this? The Club indicated there would be interest in this.

MSRAL 2020 in Tulsa: Date to be determined, probably in June but as of yet not set. Craig attended the ACT (Astronomy Club of Tulsa) board meeting discussion on this. Peggy wants volunteers; Craig has contact information if you are interested. Abby plans to volunteer. Peggy is looking for chairs for various committees needed for this event.

First Methodist Church - VBS Request: Bob Young talked to a lady at Sunfest with the First Methodist Church about some interest on their part of doing something with a VBS for grade school youth they are doing in June/July. Denise and Bob will check more into this to see if it is something we would want to pursue.

Abby's Astronomy News Compilation:

  • Two new Apollo 11 stamps coming out July 19

  • Russia Soyuz rocket recently delivered its payload . . . in spite of being struck by lightning!

  • 18 new exoplanets have been discovered

  • M82 "Cigar" galaxy has been spewing gas and dust

  • Starlink satellites "train"--go from 60 satellites to 12,000 over time?

  • The Hubble telescope has imaged over a quarter of a million galaxies

  • The Jet Propulsion Laboratory has discovered water in the outer solar system--regular (H2O) and heavy (D2O). Also, the water in our oceans is similar to the water in comets. Could comets have delivered water to earth?

  • The large red "storm" on Jupiter is gradually dying. Could it be gone within our lifetime?

  • On May 31, NASA announced the award of contracts to three companies for payloads to be delivered to the lunar surface in 2020-2021.

Tonight's Program -- Stargazing and Public Outreach by John Grismore:

  • What is stargazing? A hobby whose participants enjoy observing or imaging celestial objects in the sky using unaided eye, binoculars or telescopes. People of all cultures have been stargazing for thousands of years, constructing stories in the stars, attempting to predict the future, and appreciating the wonder and mystery of the night sky.

  • Seeing a planetarium show is a great way to see how the sky would look at some time in the past or future, but you don't always have to go to a physical planetarium! John used the SkySafari program to show us what you would see in tonight's sky.

  • The BAS began in 1958 as a consequence of the Cold War, as part of a citizen defense project called "Operation Moonwatch". This project encouraged citizens to join the Ground Observer Corps, a nationwide program to spot Soviet bombers. The Bartlesville Moonwatch station was approved by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in January 1958 . . . and so our Club began! An article about this in the Examiner-Enterprise on Jan. 26, 1958, states that the establishment of the Bartlesville Moonwatch was the result of perseverance by 12 to 14 high school students. So the origin of our Club was the result of a youth-propelled effort.

  • The BAS still reflects that youth interest in astronomy as we have a very vibrant youth group today, the BYA (Bartlesville Youth Astronomers), something that is rare in amateur astronomy.

  • The BAS at its inception had made available to it a dark observing site with a wide open view of the sky: the O.A. Mitchell farm SE of the city. Ken Willcox, past president of the BAS and a member of the Moonwatch team in high school, once described to John where this farm was. It is where Food Pyramid is today!

  • Light pollution is a problem not only for astronomers, it can also disrupt wildlife habitats and migration routes and may have effects on human health. The night sky in Bartlesville has become so washed out by outdoor lighting that most celestial objects are no longer visible and we struggle to find dark locations suitable for stargazing and astrophotography.

  • Most of the many images John showed are from the Bartlesville area but a time-lapse video of the Milky Way taken from Coleman County, TX (SW of Dallas/Fort Worth) was included to show how the Milky Way really looks in a place where there is minimal light pollution. This contrasts with another time-lapse video he showed that was taken at a Club event at Sooner Park a few years ago. In that video, the shadows of people never disappear because artificial light overwhelmed the natural dark sky.

  • Astronomical objects/events that can be seen from our area:

    • Moon and planets

    • Meteors and comets

    • Solar and lunar eclipses

    • Other unique events

  • Moon and planets:

    • Typically bright and easily visible.

    • John pointed out that lunar craters were once thought to be oceans. Craters actually form due to asteroid and meteor impacts and also lava flows. As the Moon moves in its orbit around the Earth, it grows from new moon to half moon, to full moon, then shrinks back to half moon and disappears when it reaches new moon again. The full cycle takes 28 days. Features along the Moon's terminator, the line dividing the light side from the dark side, are especially obvious and striking because of the long shadows.

    • He showed an image of Saturn taken in 2009 with the rings edge-on. It takes 15 years for the rings to go from maximum open orientation to edge-on, then another 15 years to open again.

    • He showed images of Venus that demonstrate how Venus goes through phases like the Moon, and increases in apparent size as its orbit brings it closer to Earth.

    • He also showed a beautiful image of Jupiter taken by Daryl Doughty with three of its moons and also showing its colored cloud bands and red spot.

  • Meteors and comets:

    • Less frequent and more unpredictable, but can be dramatic sights. John showed an image of Comet Lovejoy (seen below the Pleiades star cluster) taken by Rick Bryant. In this image, the head, or coma, is bright, with a thin, straight tail behind. He also showed an image he took himself of Comet West in 1976. The poorer quality of this image is due partly from scanning it from an ancient technology called film.

    • Meteors are solar system debris, generally the size of a grain of sand. They streak across the sky in a second or two as they burn up and glow when they enter the Earth's atmosphere at high speed.

    • Comets are clumps of dust and ice that orbit the Sun in elliptical orbits. When they get close to the Sun and heat up, the ice vaporizes, forming a long, beautiful tail. Comets move imperceptibly slowly; it may take several nights to notice their movement.

    • During meteor showers, "shooting stars" appear frequently, sometimes dozens an hour. Such events occur at specific times of the year, and the most publicized is the Perseid meteor shower in August.

  • Eclipses:

    • Solar eclipses--very predictable but occur rarely in any one location. These are amazing events to view with the proper equipment. It's very important never to look at the Sun without properly certified, safe solar filters. He showed an image taken by Bob Young of a partially eclipsed Sun disappearing behind a cloud bank as it set somewhere in Osage County.

    • Lunar eclipses--equally predictable and generally occur more often. An image taken by Michael Bryan shows the early stages of a lunar eclipse, with Earth's shadow creeping upward across the face of the Moon. Another image, taken near totality, with the Moon almost completely in shadow, shows deep reddish-orange colors. Photos are a good way to capture eclipses and with the right equipment and very frequent shots, you can put them together to make a time-lapse video. He showed a time-lapse of a total lunar eclipse in Bartlesville in 2015.

    • With safe filtering, you can do the same during a total solar eclipse. A number of BAS members traveled to locations in the U.S. where the total eclipse of August 2017 could be seen. He showed a time-lapse he took in Douglas, Wyoming.

  • Other unique events:

    • Challenging but rewarding to observe.

    • Examples: lunar halo, caused by ice crystals high in the atmosphere; Venus transiting the Sun on June 5, 2012 (he showed an image taken by Daryl Doughty during a BAS public event in the Arvest Bank east side parking lot, so the public could safely view the transit); Iridium flares; ISS transits (he showed videos of ISS transiting the Moon, Sun and Mars). ISS transits are generally many miles long but only a few miles wide, so BAS members travel to specific parts of town to see them.

  • Events coming up this year:

    • June and July--Jupiter and Saturn will be very bright, whether viewing with unaided eyes, binoculars or telescope

    • Perseid meteor shower--around August 12 and 13

    • November 11--rare transit of the Sun by Mercury

  • Total lunar eclipses visible in Bartlesville, further out:

    • May 26, 2021; May 15, 2022; November 8, 2022; March 14, 2025; March 3, 2026

    • The next total solar eclipse in Bartlesville will be August 12, 2045. (The last total solar eclipse in Bartlesville was November 30, 1834. There are only 3 total eclipses in Bartlesville between 1000-3000 AD. Next one after 2045 will be September 17, 2992.)

  • John also discussed instances, recorded in the Bartlesville History Museum's online records, of Native Americans viewing an unprecedented Leonid meteor shower on November 12-13, 1833. Some estimated the meteor rate to be about half the number of flakes in an average snowstorm; others quantified it at a peak rate of 100,000 per hour--i.e., 28 per second.

  • John pointed out that it will be helpful for the Club to have a prepared list of ready-made programs for the Club to use in presentations to other groups.

  • In closing, John told about how to find more information about BAS via Google search for our website, email, voicemail, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest (where astronomy news headlines are compiled and presented at monthly meetings), and YouTube.