January 2024 Meeting Notes

Bartlesville Astronomical Society Meeting Notes

January 4, 2024

Attendance:

23 people in attendance tonight, in person and via Zoom.  We had 18 members in attendance (two of whom joined this evening!) and three guests

Main program - John Blaesi -Viewing the 2023 Solar Eclipse in Bortle 1 Skies:

·   For the October 14 annular solar eclipse, John went to the home of some friends in the “middle of nowhere” in New Mexico.  His friends live a 2 ½ hour drive from Black Mesa, and the nearest town is Clayton in northeast New Mexico.  Clayton is near the volcano Mt. Capulin and from his friends’ home you can also see another volcano in the distance, Sierra Grande.

·   At his friends’ home, you can truly see from horizon to horizon, under Bortle 1 skies.  SQM dark sky reading is 22.

·   John compared pictures he took in NM, looking north, south, east and west, to comparable pictures taken from the entrance to Osage Hill State Park (Bortle ¾ skies).  There was a very noticeable difference!  The Big Dipper in New Mexico looked amazingly close.  John had a picture of the Milky Way, taken with an iPhone, that had color in it!  John said it was easy to “lose” where familiar constellations were located in the sky, due to being able to see so many more stars than he can see at home.  John showed pictures he took of the Andromeda galaxy, Jupiter, the Double Cluster in Perseus, the Pleiades and the Hyades.

·   John also showed a picture of annular eclipse crescent shadows taken through tree limbs in New Mexico, and the equipment setup he used to view the annular solar eclipse.

John also said that for the April 8 total solar eclipse, Spears Travel is organizing a trip to Mazatlan (first contact).  Next total solar eclipse in Bartlesville is in 2045.

Seestar telescopes come with special solar filters.  Luann showed recent pictures she took on her Seestar of the Sun and the Orion Nebula.

John Grismore showed a “Fake Eclipse Video” of a total solar eclipse as viewed from the Arctic Circle.  It looked very amazing, but John noticed that each time he viewed it, he saw more and more signs that it was a fake, contrived video.  The Moon rose too fast; the Moon appeared to increase in size; it appeared to rotate (you could see some of the far side); the Moon went through phases, which during an eclipse, it wouldn’t do; the Moon appeared wider than the Sun, and totality lasted only 5 seconds.

Astronomy News - Virgil Reese:

At a previous BAS meeting, Virgil mentioned the new field of Acoustic astronomy, where NASA has begun an attempt to learn about the interior of Mars by measuring how seismic waves from "Mars quakes" are altered as they travel through the planet.  At tonight’s meeting, he reported on the first release of findings from this effort.  NASA’s robotic InSight lander has provided the first detection of seismic waves traveling through the core of another planet. and this is improving our model of Mars’ inner core.  This study of the Martian deep interior reveals differences from Earth’s core.  Mars and Earth have cores consisting primarily of liquid iron.  But this study finds that about 20% of the Martian core is made up of lighter elements – mostly sulfur, but also oxygen, carbon and a dash of hydrogen.  This is about double the % of such elements in Earth’s core, meaning the Martian core is considerably less dense.  Mars’ core also appears to be slightly smaller than was previously assumed.

Club Business:

Treasury Report – Evan:

Ending balance November 30, 2023 was $14,400.80.

Received in December:  $285 in dues payments

Payments in December:

J. Blaesi reimbursement for mall items: $40.31.

Denise Gregg reimbursement for guest meal, printing, supplies: $77.95.

Staples: laptop, laser pointer & mouse, cable, MS Office software, computer bag: $581.46.

Ending balance December 31, 2023: $13,986.08.

Upcoming star parties: 

We decided not to have a second-Saturday-of-the-month star party at Jo Allyn Lowe on January 13 as the weather forecast is very cold and wintry.

Next meeting on February 5:

We need volunteers to present at February meeting on viewing and photographing solar events.  For example, you might be able to demonstrate how to make supplies like solar filters.