October 2020 Meeting Notes

Bartlesville Astronomical Society Meeting Minutes

October 5, 2020

Thanks to Denise and Evan for Zoom setup and for your participation tonight!

10 people in attendance; no new visitors

Announcements:

• • The library is still unavailable for evening meetings. We will continue to have meetings via Zoom through December.

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

  • October 4 - Sputnik Day - 1957

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

    • Treasurer’s Report – Evan:

    • Ending balance Aug. 31: $3945.85

    • Payments:

  • Annual insurance $323.20

  • New P.O. Box annual fee $118.00

  • New Zoom account annual fee $74.95 (and were able to use a coupon from John Blaesi to lower cost—thanks!)

  • New Club loaner telescope $417.95

  • Check to Denise for supplies for library display $47.83

    • Ending balance Sept. 30: $2963.92

    • $2000.00 is about to come in from volunteer grants from ConocoPhillips and Phillips 66.

    • These are volunteer grants applied for by Denise (two COP grants), John Grismore (one COP grant) and John Blaesi (one P66 grant). Thanks to ConocoPhillips and Phillips66!

    • Committee Reports:

  • Astronomical League news and activities - Rick Buck: No updates from Rick.

  • International Observe the Moon Night / Astronomy Day - September 26: We had a virtual observation event attended by four people. Two people shared live telescope images via Zoom. In addition to the Moon, we observed Jupiter and its four moons; Saturn with a moon (Titan); and Mars with its polar ice cap. The Moon was between quarter and full stage (about 75% lit) and the craters along the terminator were striking. We enjoyed visiting together while conducting observations.

• • Youth club (BYA) news - Rick Bryant: Rick Bryant was not in attendance.

  • Library Display – Update: It has been rescheduled for April 2021. If you need anything from the storage room at First Christian Church, let Craig know. If Abby won’t be around next April, we need a coordinator. Denise is filling in in the meantime at least; the library has her contact information.

  • Night Sky Network update: Craig received a new NSN kit in association with International Observe the Moon Night/Astronomy Day.

    • New Business:

  • Need Astronomical League coordinator to replace Kristi. Rick Buck is filling in.

  • Need web wizard and social media wrangler to replace Derek. Denise is filling in. She has written a manual/cookbook for web administration - Thanks! We especially need someone with Facebook and Twitter skills. Karen has put an interim message on the Facebook page—thanks, Karen!—but we need someone to really work on Facebook and Twitter for the Club.

  • Club slate of officers and elections for 2021:

    • The Board met October 1 and has proposed a slate of candidates for officers for 2021. All of the elected officers have agreed to serve for another year. Here is the proposed slate of candidates:

      • President - Craig Brockmeier

      • Vice President - Richard Buck

      • Secretary - Denise Gregg

      • Treasurer - Evan Zorn

      • Member-at-Large - Duane Perkins

      • Member-at-Large - Karen Cruce

      • Appointed positions:

        • • Astronomical League Coordinator - Denise Gregg

          • Observing Program Coordinator - Richard Buck

          • Bartian Youth Astronomers Leader - Rick Bryant

          • Newsletter Editor - Mike Woods

          • Program Director - Bob Young

          • Meeting Arrangements Coordinator - Daryl Doughty

          • Website and Social Media Administrator - Denise Gregg

  • Other nominations? No nominations were received at the meeting.

  • We will send out the above slate of candidates, and if no one else nominates themselves or someone else, we will send out a final slate to be voted on at the November Zoom meeting. If you don’t think you’ll be able to attend the November Zoom meeting, please reply with your vote before the meeting, after you receive the final slate of candidates. For those members who don’t have email, we will solicit votes by phone before the meeting.

  • A note on Astronomical League Coordinator: Denise has begun preparing the quarterly AlCor member files, which ties in well with Web Wizard. Rick Buck’s main interest in AlCor is networking with other Clubs. In light of COVID-19, there isn’t as much networking. Denise will prepare the quarterly files and forward AlCor news to members. She will forward networking and meeting requests to Rick Buck for him to handle and ask for any other AlCor-related assistance from him as needed.

  • Dues for 2021: In light of COVID-19, we decided that, for both the BAS and BYA, dues paid for 2020 also cover dues for 2021, but if you would like to pay dues for 2021 anyway, payment will be gratefully accepted. New BAS and BYA members will be required to pay dues to join the Club.

  • Club Survey - John Grismore:

  • John presented an overview of the results of the survey that he, John Blaesi, Karen, Evan and Denise conducted. Key findings, which John G said that the Board would need to handle:

  • The Club needs to come up with some method of texting members who wish to receive time-sensitive communications via text. A substantial percentage of members would prefer texting for time-sensitive communications, and we expect that this will grow over time.

  • John G had noted that there has not been a lot of response from members, over time, to Club communications in general. The results of the survey showed that this was not due to people not receiving communications. (In advance of the Survey, Denise did some cross-checks of Club email addresses in various places and got in touch with members for whom there were questions as to correct email addresses.) John Grismore proposed that we target communications by subject matter according to the subject matter interests of members. Denise pointed out that this would take a lot of time to set up and maintain. John G said, in response, that we need someone in the Club to manage this, and look for new software that could help with it. Denise said that Derek started asking for volunteers to be Web Wizard last fall—and so far, no one has volunteered except Denise.

  • Club Google Site transition from “Classic” to “New” Google Sites:

  • Google is in the process of sunsetting “Classic” Google Sites in favor of “New” Google Sites. After September 2021, if we do nothing, we won’t be able to update our Google Site. Come December 2021, the Club site wouldn’t be able to be accessed at all. Top priority for the Club now is migrating to “New” Google Sites.

  • Craig said one path for doing this might be to make a copy of the current site, then migrate it to New Google Sites and see how that works. If nothing is lost, then this might be the way to accomplish the migration, but we would still have to review all pages for formatting and content and make sure all the links work before disabling the old site—and this would take time.

  • There is the possibility that the Club site web links and/or QR codes may change as a result of migration. If so, this would mean that handouts, QR code sheets, business cards and banners would need to be redone—before the library display next April. This would mean that migration would need to take place by the end of February 2021 to allow time for updating and reprinting before the library display.

  • At the Board meeting last week, we discussed the need to find someone who is familiar with migrating Google Sites who could help us. John G said that he is in the process of migrating a much smaller Google Site and so far, it has gone well. Denise had a contact in town who is familiar with Google Sites, but it turns out that he is not doing a site migration to New Google Sites.

  • Denise contacted Bartnet; they don’t have experience with Google Sites.

  • She contacted another Club member who is retired from COP IT and he doesn’t have experience with Google Sites either.

  • If anyone else in the Club is familiar with Google Sites migration, or knows someone who is, let Denise or Craig know.

  • John Grismore said that the Club should look into migrating the Club site to some other type of platform that would offer different types of communications. However, it was pointed out that the Club consists of volunteers who haven’t volunteered the time (besides Denise) to be Web Wizard, let alone who would have the time and expertise needed to conduct such a search. As was discussed as part of the Survey response, Craig will solicit Club members to help with this side of the Club. Unless someone steps forward who knows something about another type of site, and could handle the migration, we will proceed with migrating to New Google Sites and after that, see what we might be able to do for Club texting. The Board, at the October 1 meeting, didn’t think we should spend a lot of time trying to slice-and-dice Club communications to members by topic, considering the time it would take to set up and maintain this.

    • Astronomy News and Events:

  • World Space Week--theme is “Satellites improve life”

  • Astronomy News - Abby Bollenbach: Abby wasn’t present this evening, but she is continuing to make presentations for Astronomy magazine. Her latest one is Black Holes 101 - View at http://astronomy.com and select the Videos tab.

  • Member photos: Rick Buck presented an awesome image of the Elephant Trunk Nebula in the constellation Cephus, which he compiled over a period of months!

  • The Cosmosphere fundraiser: https://cosmo.org The Cosmosphere was to have had a fundraising weekend this year to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of Apollo 13, with astronauts and people from Apollo Mission Control in attendance—but this was cancelled in light of COVID-19. Instead, the Cosmosphere had a live-streaming broadcast October 4, including interviews with astronauts and members of Mission, and the opportunity to make donations. This was followed by the launch of an auction of items of many types that will continue until October 23. Between October 4 and 23, there are three successive auction blocks.

    • Upcoming astronomical events:

    • Mars—closest approach to Earth for the next 15 years is October 6. Mars is at opposition October 13.

    • Club Events:

    • Star parties: Rick Buck

    • Star Party for Dewey School - TBA

    • St. Lukes - TBA

    • Wayside school - TBA

    • Tonight’s Program

  • Osage Hills Dark Skies - John Blaesi. John gave us a sneak peak into a topic he will discuss in more detail at the November meeting. Ranger Nick at Osage Hills would like to get IDA Dark Sky Park designation for Osage Hills State Park. There will be a lot of tasks associated with this project, and our Club will have multiple opportunities to assist Nick with this! John said that getting Dark Sky Park certification would probably take 1-3 years.

  • Cosmosphere - Craig Brockmeier: Craig did a reprise of the presentation he made to the Club in December 2014 on the Cosmosphere. Several people at the Cosmosphere live-streaming event October 4—including Charlie Duke and Gene Krantz—pointed out how the Cosmosphere occupies a very special place among museums with space exhibits. Not only is the Cosmosphere museum dedicated to the exploration of outer space, it also tells the story of the development of the U.S. and Russian space programs, going back to their beginnings, including the development of the V1 and V2 rockets by Wernher von Braun and his team of German scientists during WWII. The Cosmosphere has Gus Grissom’s Liberty Bell capsule, as well as the Gemini X and Apollo XIII spacecraft. The world-renowned SpaceWorks group of the Cosmosphere did the restoration work on the spacecraft prior to exhibit—including the Liberty Bell, which was on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean for decades. The Cosmosphere also has backups, mockups and prototypes of other U.S. and Russian spacecraft and many, many other artifacts on display, a number of which have been flown into space, including a moon rock from Apollo 11.

    • Adjournment

    • Next meeting - November 2. John Blaesi will discuss in more detail what is needed for Osage Hills Dark Sky Park designation and how the Club could participate in this.

    • Volunteers needed for upcoming meetings - Bob Young