November 2023 Meeting Notes
Bartlesville Astronomical Society
November 6, 2023
• Opening and Welcome
• Craig showed images of the moon and Saturn taken by Sonny Manley
• Thank you to Denise Gregg for Zoom setup
• 25 in attendance this evening in person and via Zoom, including 17 members (one of whom joined this evening!) and eight guests
• Announcements
• Ken Mattingly died - October 31. He was on prime crew for Apollo 13 (which he did not fly, and for which he provided invaluable ground support). He flew on Apollo 16 and Space shuttle STS-4 and STS-51C.
• Kalamazoo Astronomical Society
• Introduction to Astronomy class in January-February
• Registration now - First class January 13 at noon
• https://www.kasonline.org/amastro.html
• Eclipse series
• https://www.kasonline.org/eclipse.html
• Online viewing - November 11 7:30-9:30pm
• 20” PlaneWave telescope and 106mm Takahashi
• https://www.kasonline.org/viewing.html
• Observing and Imaging Reports
• Observe the Moon event October 21: We had a Club event that evening at Jo Allyn Lowe and 11 people came. In addition to the Moon, we looked at a number of objects including a very clear Jupiter with four moons and Io transit.
• Star party - November 10 at Jo Allyn Lowe Park
• Astronomical News and Events
• Virgil Reese - Astronomy news
• Beautiful aurorae have been recently seen in Europe.
• The European Space Agency’s Euclid telescope will have dark universe pictures soon.
• NASA has photographed a record-breaking black hole. Data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the James Webb Space Telescope were combined to discover a black hole that originated 470 million years after the Big Bang.
• Asteroid Dinkinesh has its own moon!
• Remnants of an ancient planet have been discovered under the earth’s core!
• Astronomy beyond visible light:
• Infrared light, discovered 1800
• Ultraviolet light, discovered 1801
• Radio waves, discovered 1885
• Microwaves, discovered 1894
• X-rays, discovered 1895
• Cosmic rays, discovered 1912
• Gamma rays, discovered 1914
• Gravity waves, predicted 1915 and confirmed 2015
• Neutrinos, predicted 1930 and confirmed 1956
• In addition to these, seismic waves enable us to learn about earth’s interior as well as the interiors of our moon and other planets.
• Seismometers have found remnants of a planet that hit earth.
• The Apollo 17 mission recorded seismographic readings on the moon. The moon has a core, mantle and crust; these imply that it once had magnetic protection.
• The Russians briefly had seismometers on Venus.
• NASA had seismometers on Mars in 1976 but they didn’t work well.
• In 2018, the Insight lander on Mars detected 1300 “marsquakes”. Seismic data from Mars indicate that Mars has a liquid metallic core.
• Using the Philae lander, the European Space Agency measured mechanical waves on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Under the comet’s crusty surface was a soft, fluffy material like light snow.
• Saturn’s moon Titan has surface lakes and seas containing a petroleum-like substance. Plans are being made to have a Japanese-built seismometer lowered to Titan by winch.
• In the future: an orbiter and lander on Saturn’s moon Enceladus, possibly later on Jupiter’s moon Europa and on Venus.
• Starquakes have been detected on neutron stars—could these be the sources of faint radio bursts?
• Upcoming meteor showers: Andromedids November 6; Taurids November 11-12; Leonids November 17-18; December phi Cassiopeiids Dec. 4.
• Lunar X visible this week (appears every lunar cycle)
• Business
• Minutes of previous meeting are posted online by Denise Gregg - Approved
• Treasurer’s Report - Evan Zorn.
• Dues can now be paid for 2024. Dues are $25 individual (one vote); family of two $30 (one vote); family of three or more $40 (one vote); full-time student age 13 or more in high school or a post-secondary educational institution $10 (no vote).
• Ending balance September 30, 2023: $14218.69
• One new member, received $25.00.
• Ending balance October 31, 2023: $14243.69
• Request for NASA speaker
• We haven’t been notified of a speaker yet.
• http://www.universe-of-learning.org
• Committee Reports
• Astronomical League news and activities - Denise Gregg—no updates from MSRAL/Astronomical League this month.
• Youth club (BYA) news - Rick Bryant—We are now looking for a new youth leader. The youth group has not had formal meetings since August, as Rick has had to step down from leading the youth group. Rick has given Denise his listing of BYA members and friends to make a youth Google Group when we are ready to do so.
• Mall display – We have a display window to decorate, measuring about 12 feet long, eight feet high and four feet deep. We will start the decorating process Friday, November 10 at 11 a.m. The display window is along the corridor leading to Dillard’s on the left-hand side, by where the Gap Outlet used to be.
• New Business
• Elections - the following slate of officers was unanimously elected. (There were no nominations from the floor or on Zoom.)
• John Blaesi - President
• John Grismore - Vice President
• Evan Zorn - Treasurer
• Denise Gregg - Secretary
• Tonight’s Program
• Presentations on the Solar Annular Eclipse October 14 - Denise Gregg
• We had presentations this evening of:
• The BAS October 14 event on the north side of Washington Park Mall. Twelve people came to this event. Although clouds obscured the eclipse most of the time, Katelyn, Kat, and Caleb were able to get pictures of it! For what we couldn’t see, we watched the live eclipse streaming and “pretended” we were seeing the full annular eclipse! Denise also showed images of the altostratus asperitas clouds we saw at the mall. She also showed a great image taken by a relative in Stillwater (80% coverage at eclipse maximum) of eclipse shadows seen through window blinds.
• Ron’s pictures taken from central Texas. Ron used a projection telescope that projected stunning black-and-white pictures of the eclipse, where the weather was clear and eclipse maximum coverage was about 90%! He also had a very striking image of eclipse crescents!
• John G’s pictures from Texas. He stationed himself between Midland and Odessa along the eclipse center line. John showed pictures of his Celestron C-6 telescope setup—“staring into a box!” and a fabulous set of 12 images that captured the entire eclipse from start to finish. He also showed an awesome time lapse video of the eclipse and another video of sunspots! (John took pictures every 5 seconds to create these videos!) John said that the sky darkened a bit during the eclipse and that the ambient light was more yellow than it would normally be.
• John B’s pictures from New Mexico. John went to a Dark Sky Site to view not only the annular eclipse but the night sky under Bortle 1 conditions. In addition to showing a great image of eclipse “clamshell’ shadows taken at 96% coverage, he showed amazing night sky pictures of a very bright Andromeda and the Pleiades—pictures that he took with only a ten-second exposure time!
• Interest in Robert Reeves as speaker?
• Adjournment
• Next meeting
• December 4 at library, topic TBD (will be meteor showers, unless get speaker through Night Sky Network program)
• Thanks!
• Ice cream at Braum’s!!!
• Motion to adjourn