August 2021 Meeting Notes
Bartlesville Astronomical Society
August 2, 2021
• Opening and Welcome
• Thank you to Denise Gregg for Zoom setup
• 11 people in attendance including charter member Ronald and recent visitor Sreeram
• Announcements
• 90mm telescope donation from Joe Kelton
• Jo Allyn Lowe Park Star Garden
• Front page of Examiner-Enterprise - July 18
• Thanks to John Blaesi and John Grismore for working with Lisa Beeman and the Park Board to set this up!
• Library is available for meetings! We decided to hold the September meeting via Zoom as we will have an outside guest speaker from Owasso.
• They are currently allowing meetings of 10 or fewer people without masks or social distancing; if more than 10, need to have masks or social distancing.
• Thanks to John Grismore, John Blaesi, Mike Woods, and others for the Shut-in Newsletter and our regular newsletter
• The Shut-in Supplement had its last edition come out August 1, after being published for a year and four months!
• Minutes of previous meeting are posted online by Denise Gregg were approved
• Treasurer’s Report - Evan Zorn
• Ending balance June 30, 2021: $4607.60
• Check to Rick Bryant for BYA craft supplies $19.06
• Check to Denise Gregg for Sunfest supplies $20.43
• Paid $215.00 in annual Astronomical League dues
• Received $3000.00 in ConocoPhillips volunteer grants
• Ending balance July 31, 2021: $7353.11
• Dues
• Committee Reports
• Astronomical League news and activities - Denise Gregg
• Peggy Walker is looking for photos for MSRAL website. You can email her at basidewalkastro@yahoo.com
• ALCon - August 19-21 (see below)
• Youth club (BYA) news - Rick Bryant—Rick was not in attendance this evening
• Library Display - Update
• If you have items on display, plan to pick them up at the First Christian Church later
• There are 2 levels in storage - Who is the owner?
• Denise has submitted request for library display for 2022. Indicated first choice month April, second choice March
• Dark Sky committee - John Blaesi
• We made sky quality measurements at OHSP. 21.6 or better
• Need volunteers to take measurements
• bvilleastro+darksky@gmail.com
• Old Business
• Would like to resume work on letterhead and name badges
• New Business
• Tulsa Girl Scouts trying to get an observatory to house a NASA donated telescope plus other several other telescopes they have at Camp Wah-Shah-She.
• Fund raiser on September 10 at Timber Oaks- West of airport. The bulk of the proceeds from this fundraiser will be used to build an observatory at Camp Wah-Shah-She.
• The fund-raiser is an all-adult event; expect 60-75 adults in attendance
• Do we want to participate? The evening would end at approximately 10:30-11 p.m.
• Girl Scout contact is Cassie Janssen
• We are getting an iPad to control new Club telescope
• Need Astronomical League coordinator - Kristi Herrman
• Denise Gregg is filling in
• Need web wizard and social media wrangler - Derek Herrman
• Denise Gregg is filling in
• Need someone with Facebook and Twitter skills
• Website migration from classic to new google sites is underway
• John Grismore, Denise Gregg, and myself
• Our old bvilleastro@yahoo.com email address - Used anywhere?
• The Sunfest organizers are planning a one-day BOOfest on a Saturday in October. We would need to provide thousands of giveaway “treats” if we participated in the event. We decided not to participate, and Denise will let the Sunfest organizers know.
• Astronomy News and Events
• Neil DeGrasse Tyson in Tulsa October 4 at Cox Business Center
• Tickets are somewhat pricey
• Change our meeting date???
• Interested in a group???
• Astronomy News - Abby Bollenbach
• Abby is making presentations for Astronomy magazine.
• Latest are “The Voyager Missions” and “What are Quasars?”
• View at http://astronomy.com select the Videos tab
• ALCON 2021 - August 19-21
• Virtual event - enroll at https://www.alconvirtual.org - Free
• David Levy, Jocelyn Bell Burnell, David Eicher, and others will present
• IDA - Capture the Dark contest
• John Blaesi entered one image
• Astronomy Club of Tulsa - August
• August 6 - Members only observing event at ACT observatory
• Also August 27
• https://astrotulsa.com
• John Land said they weren’t going to have a regular club meeting in August
• OKC Astronomy Club August 13 - in person meetings now
• Okie-Tex October 1-9 - registration now open at http://www.okie-tex.com
• Cosmosphere
• July 15 9:00am - Coffee at the Cosmo
• The Peril and Promise of Space Exploration: Celebrating the 60th Anniversary of Liberty Bell 7
• Celebrating the 60th Anniversary of Liberty Bell 7
• Special Liberty Bell exhibit
• Free admission for current military members until Labor Day
• Museum Day September 18
• https://cosmo.org
• Kalamazoo Astronomical Society Zoom meetings - kasonline.org
• Meeting is August 14 - Potluck dinner - in-person event
• September 10 - The History and Formation of PlaneWave
• Astrophotography Special Interest group forming in September?
• Meteor showers
• Delta Aquarids - July 27-30
• Perseids - August 11-13 - 50/hour
• Upcoming astronomical events
• Saturn at opposition - August 1
• Jupiter at opposition - August 19
• Pluto at opposition - July 19 - Anyone try to photograph/observe it?
• VOYAGE - 1/10 billionth scale Solar System coming to Broken Arrow
• Not sure just when
• 2000-foot path, with the Sun located at Creekwood Elementary 1301 E Albany and Pluto at Broken Arrow High School
• Jupiter moon eclipses
• August 15 - Triple transit 15:17UTC - Asia
• Club Events
• Star parties: Rick Buck
• Girl Scout Observing Event at Wah-Shah-She - May 15 Rained out
• Tried for June 5 - Clouded out
• Star Party for Dewey School - TBA
• St. Lukes - TBA
• Wayside school - TBA
• Osage Hills First Light - Next year!
• John Blaesi - upcoming events
• Possible Perseids evening at Osage Hills August 11, weather permitting
• Do we want to have a Jupiter’s lunar eclipses star party on August 9 and 19? Will depend on weather.
• Observing reports
• OHSP - 21.5 on SQM means magnitude 6.5 to naked eye
• Member photos
• Peggy Walker is looking for photos for MSRAL website.
• Tonight’s Program—John Blaesi on our Jo Allyn Lowe Star Garden and other dark-sky work he is doing on behalf of our Club, and a general discussion on DSLR cameras and image processing software that Club members use for astrophotography
• Jo Allyn Lowe park is getting some new lights that John B. will see next week
• John Blaesi is arranging for a dark-sky-lighting presenter for our September Club meeting
• Bartlesville has 4500 street lights!
• LED street lights can cost anywhere from $150-350 or more.
• In September there will be a soft opening of Jo Allyn Lowe Star Garden, when the skies start to get darker at night. A date has not been set yet.
• Camera discussions:
• John Grismore and John Blaesi discussed the types of cameras they have
• Use tripods and simple equatorial mounts with cameras
• Star Adventurer 2i Pro Pack Sky Watcher mount was suggested
• Image processing software:
• DSS
• Sequator
• PixInsight
• Vespera is being developed; can pre-order
• Adjournment
• Next meeting on September 9 (Thursday). Speaker will be Buddy Stefanoff with Crossroads LED
• Betty Keim interested in another meeting (in person or via Zoom this fall)
• Volunteers needed for upcoming meetings - Bob Young
• Ice cream at virtual Braum’s!!!
• Motion to adjourn