July 2020 Meeting Notes

BAS Minutes July 6, 2020

Thanks to:

John Blaesi and others for Zoom setup and testing

Everyone for participating in this Zoom session

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

Denise for writing a manual/cookbook for Club web administration

We had 19 people in attendance via Zoom, including two guests this evening, John Land and James Taggart from the Astronomy Club of Tulsa

Next month’s meeting: We wouldn’t know until later this week whether or not the library will open during the evenings in August. Even if this would be possible, however, those present at tonight’s meeting chose to do the August meeting with Zoom in any case.

Minutes of previous meeting as posted online by Denise were approved.

Treasurer’s Report - Evan Zorn:

Ending balance May 31, 2020: $3676.97

Payment to John Blaesi for library display supplies he bought: $89.28

Payment to state of Oklahoma for organization registration $15.00

Deposit of $500.00 from Phillips 66 for volunteer grant logged by John Blaesi

Ending balance June 30, 2020: $4072.69

Evan reminded everyone that if they purchase goods from Amazon—which has become more popular since the coronavirus—that if they use the Amazon Smile website (which is just like Amazon) and designate the Bartlesville Astronomical Society as a recipient, Amazon will donate to the BAS ½ per cent of sales.

Others in our Club who do considerable volunteer work for the Club will be filing for ConocoPhillips and Phillips 66 volunteer grants. Evan asked that those who work for or are retired from other companies to see if their companies also have a volunteer grant program.

Committee Reports:

Astronomical League news and activities - Rick Buck. He didn’t have any real news, other than that Denise submitted the quarterly AlCor report which is due early July.

Youth club (BYA) news - Rick Bryant—he was not present this evening

Library Display Update:

If you need anything from the storage room at First Christian Church, let Craig know. We are trying to reschedule for April 2021. An official letter from the library is being sent to Abby to reschedule for April.

Abby said that even though she will be in college, she will be able to coordinate setting up the library display next April.

Need schedule Board meeting:

In person or Zoom? We decided to do Zoom. Date TBD.

Need Astronomical League coordinator to replace Kristi; Rick Buck is filling in but he is already Club VP and Events Coordinator.

Need web wizard and social media wrangler to replace Derek; Denise is filling in but she is already Secretary. Our most urgent need is for someone with Facebook and Twitter skills to take over the social media part of Web Wizard, as this isn’t being done right now. We need someone who has Facebook or Twitter accounts of their own to handle this for the Club.

Astronomy News - Abby Bollenbach:

Abby is making presentations for Astronomy magazine! Her first two presentations on the Big Bang and Exoplanets, plus an interview are online! These presentations were planned to be weekly but, due to there being fewer editors now at Astronomy News, they are going to be biweekly. To view these, go to astronomy.com, then click on the Video tab. To date, 21,000 people have watched the first episode and 9,000 have watched the second! She has received good feedback on her presentations and is working on future ones now; the next one will be on the formation of the Moon!

Member photos—none this evening

Upcoming astronomical events:

• • Comet Neowise - John Grismore provided an update on this comet. Neowise will be a predawn comet this week, viewable to the northeast under Capella, and then transition to an evening comet around July 15. A couple days ago magnitude was measured at 0.8. This week it’s at an altitude of 5-7 degrees about an hour before sunrise. Starting around July 15 it will be visible in the northwest in the lower part of Ursa Major. John Land mentioned that spaceweather.com has good updates on the comet.

  • Jupiter will be in opposition on July 14.

  • Saturn will be in opposition on July 20.

  • MSRAL – Cancelled; possibly rescheduled for June 4-7, 2021

    • Club Events:

    • Star parties at Dewey School, St. Luke’s and Wayside School are all still TBA.

    • Astronomy Club of Tulsa star party:

    • The Astronomy Club of Tulsa had a star party with social distancing in June. They held it at a hilltop location of less than an acre, but there was room for individuals or family units to spread out; about 20 individuals or family units attended. Cars lined up at the viewing site and people set up their telescopes behind their cars. Some people work masks but most didn’t—but at the same time, most people didn’t go to observe from others’ telescopes, either. There was one new couple who attended and they were loaned a telescope for the evening. Attendees didn’t go inside the building at their observation area except to use the restrooms.

    • Tonight’s Program:

    • Titanic to Tarawa: The Moon in History, by Brian Turner, Associate Professor of Physics at Oklahoma Wesleyan University. Brian has been teaching at OWU for 21 years!

    • Brian opened this very interesting presentation with a review of lunar facts:

  • The lunar orbit is elliptical. At perigee (closest point to Earth; moon looks larger in the sky) it is 382,570 miles from Earth, and at apogee (farthest point from Earth) it is 405,410 miles from Earth.

  • The moon exerts a greater gravitational pull on the Earth at new moon and full moon. This is when the Earth-Moon-Sun alignment is greatest; this is also when eclipses take place. At the quarter moon phase, there is less alignment and less gravitational pull from the moon and Sun.

  • The lunar orbit is tilted 5.14 degrees. This explains why there aren’t eclipses every month.

  • High and low tides on Earth reflect the differential gravity pull by the Moon each month. There are higher tides on the side of Earth facing the moon; there are also higher tides on the side opposite the Moon. In the latter case, with less gravity, water flows farther out due to less inertia.

  • Each day there are two high and two low tides.

  • The Sun also affects tides. The Earth has an elliptical orbit around the Sun—91.4 million miles distant from the Sun at perihelion in early January, and 94.5 million miles from the Sun at aphelion.

  • There are more tides at new and full moon; at quarter moon, there are neap tides. Neap tides happen when the Moon, Earth and Sun are at right angles to each other, which causes the Sun’s and Moon’s gravitational attractions to Earth to cancel each other out and lessen both high and low tides.

    • Brian then reviewed various events on Earth that were shaped by total solar or lunar eclipses, or by tides. These included:

  • A total solar eclipse on May 28, 585 B.C., occurred during the five-year war between Lydians and Medes. This eclipse is known as the Eclipse of Thales.

  • A total solar eclipse on May 5, 840 A.D., during the reign of Emperor Louis of Bavaria, son of Charlemagne, precipitated his death. This in turn led to the Treaty of Verdun, which divided the lands that had been under his rule among his three sons, forming France, Germany and Italy.

  • Strong tides occurred during the Boston Tea Party on Dec. 16, 1773. Tides went up from 11 to 14 feet. The solar pull on the tides was stronger and the full moon was at perigee. High tides were higher, and low tides were lower--at a time when over 4.5 tons of tea was dumped into Boston Harbor. The event could have been called the Boston Mud Party.

  • A total solar eclipse on August 18, 1868, led to the discovery of helium. French astronomer Jules Janssen saw a new element, represented by a bright yellow line, in the spectroscopic measurements he did during this total eclipse. Helium got its name from Helios, the sun god!

  • A total solar eclipse on July 29, 1878, helped to further the career of Maria Mitchell, first female professor of astronomy in the U.S. She discovered comet 1847 VI (modern designation C/1847 T1), later known as Miss Mitchell’s Comet. She taught at Vassar.

  • Tides and the Titanic: On January 4, 1912, the Moon and the Sun were lined up at lunar perigee; at this particular perigee, the Moon was the closer to Earth than it had been in almost 1400 years. Tides, as a result, were unusually high, so much so that it is possible that these tides could have dislodged icebergs that could have reached the north Atlantic shipping lanes by April 15, 1912, the date the Titanic sank.

  • A total solar eclipse on May 29, 1919, was used to prove Einsteins’ theory of relativity—that gravity curves space time. Arthur Eddington from the UK observed the positions of stars near the Sun at the time of the total eclipse, and these matched Einstein’s predictions!

  • Tides on November 21, 1943, during the U.S. Marine landing at Tarawa during WWII, November 20-23, 1943: Tides on November 21 were apogean neap tides when the moon was at quarter phase. The morning tide didn’t rise 3-4 feet, as had been expected, and hardly rose at all during the next 30 hours. This was also at a time when the Earth was near perihelion to the Sun—with the Sun’s pull, tidal forces were evened up and contributed to the lower tides.

    • Next meeting - August 3 - Program to be determined

    • Volunteers needed for upcoming meetings – see Bob Young

    • Ice cream at virtual Braum’s!!!