August 2020 Meeting Notes

Bartlesville Astronomical Society Meeting Minutes

August 3, 2020

Thanks to:

John Blaesi for Zoom setup

John Grismore, John Blaesi, Mike Woods, and others for the Shut-in Newsletter and our regular newsletter

11 people in attendance at tonight’s meeting

Announcements:

Library still unavailable for meetings

Do we want to have the next meeting in person (somewhere) or via Zoom? The group decided to do it via Zoom.

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

Treasurer’s Report - Evan Zorn

Ending balance June 30, 2020: $4072.69

Received one check for $136.07, a donation from Pampered Chef from things the BYA sold. Check received from Rick Buck.

Paid $215.00 for annual Astronomical League dues

Ending balance July 31, 2020: $3993.76

We are working on the matching gifts program for CoP and Phillips66. Evan will be Club contact for volunteer grants for ConocoPhillips. Denise has applied for two individual volunteer grants from ConocoPhillips.

Committee Reports

Astronomical League news and activities - Rick Buck—he was not present this evening

Youth club (BYA) news - Rick Bryant—he was not present this evening. Denise did see Rick Buck and Rick Bryant one recent evening—they were at Our Savior Lutheran to see if the skies would be clear enough to see Comet Neowise. They weren’t that evening, but Rick and Rick said they had been showing the comet to BYA youth and their families at Our Savior in small groups.

Library Display – Update

If you need anything from the storage room at First Christian Church, let Craig know.

Will Abby be around next year, if not we need a coordinator. At this time we think Abby will be around, but Denise Gregg has given her name and address to Denise at the library as an interim Club contact, along with our written library request form to have our display next April; our library display has been rescheduled for April 2021.

Sign up for Club Zoom membership for a year; have meetings for the rest of the year via Zoom.

A motion was made that the Club approve a purchasing a Zoom account for a year and this passed.

Get PO Box—Evan, Craig and Denise will work on this.

Get Club telescope Celestron Starsense DX 102AZ ~ $450, a 4-inch refractor telescope Craig has checked into buying. A motion was made to have the Club approve this purchase, and it passed.

We do need to have a loaner policy for the telescope.

Need Astronomical League coordinator to replace Kristi Herrman; Rick Buck is filling in

Need web wizard and social media wrangler to replace Derek Herrman; Denise Gregg is filling in. Thanks to Denise for writing a manual/cookbook for web administration.

We especially need someone with Facebook and Twitter skills; Karen Cruce has agreed to do very basic posting on Facebook; she has put on a message referring people to our main Club site.

Astronomy News and Events

Astronomy News - Abby Bollenbach

Abby is making presentations for Astronomy magazine. Latest one is on Perserverance Mars lander! Go to astronomy.com, click on the Video tab!

Member photos

We showed stunning images Bob Young took of Comet Neowise and the Milky Way.

Upcoming astronomical events

Debbie Stultz still has about 20 telescopes left to sell, along with tripods and eyepieces. If you are interested, her phone number is 620-605-2083.

Club Events

Star parties: Rick Buck

Star Party for Dewey School - TBA

St. Lukes - TBA

Wayside school - TBA

Others?

Tonight’s Program: Natural Night Skies at Osage Hills State Park - John Blaesi

John made an excellent presentation (that he worked on with John Grismore) about dark sky observing locations at Osage Hills State Park.

Top considerations for dark sky locations:

Priority 1

    • Open sky

    • Reasonably dark sky

    • Short commute, 15 to 20 minutes from Bartlesville City limits

    • Easy access

    • Private, preferably behind a gate

    • Affordable

    • Unlimited access at any time

Priority 2

    • Long term commitment from site owner and club

    • Room for a group to spread out to separate locations and parking

    • Fenced

    • Good cell phone signal

    • Low maintenance

What does Osage Hills offer? All of the above!

    • 1,200 acres 10 miles from Bartlesville

    • Open 24/7

    • Camping Facilities

    • Restroom Facilities

    • Reasonable dark skies Dark Skies

      • John displayed a map of Osage Hills and also a fabulous trifold document that he made to be given out to visitors to Osage Hills! It has a map, QR codes for our Club, what’s up in the sky tonight and Pocket Planetarium!

      • John reviewed several Osage Hills observing sites, including one near Hwy 60 that is fairly large; there is an adjacent plot of land (5-10 acres) not owned by Osage Hills that, if the Club could buy it, could allow for even more room for possibly down the road setting up an observatory, and there would be plenty of room for parking.

      • In the meantime, there are things that the Club can do:

Help with interpretive sign information

    • QR code for Night Sky This Week

    • List Park Locations

    • Information and binoculars/scopes at office

    • Basic night sky observation information

    • Help with park night sky educational clinics

    • Night time show and tell

    • Coordination with astronomic events

    • Research good backpack scope

    • Beginner level

    • Easy to use

    • Raise Funding

    • Promote and use Osage Hills’ dark sky sites!

    • Tell Nick at Osage Hills how much you love observing at the park, send him pictures you’ve taken there, and say thank you!

Next meeting - September 14 - Upcoming program to be determined

Volunteers needed for upcoming meetings - Bob Young

Ice cream at virtual Braum’s!!!

Motion to adjourn