September 2024 Meeting Notes

Bartlesville Astronomical Society Meeting Notes

September 5, 2024

Attendance:  We had 17 people members in attendance this evening, in person and on Zoom, 14 members and 3 guests.    

Astronomical events/reports:

We didn’t have a star party at Jo Allyn Lowe Saturday, August 10, due to weather.

Club Business:

Treasurer’s Report – Evan Z:

Ending balance July 31, 2024:  $15138.98

Interest from new Truity account:  $48.80

Three donations from Benevity Causes: 

$80.00

$445.52

$1024.65

$147.50 payment to Denise for supplies for library display and Sunfest

$47.72 for pizza lunch for Club volunteers for library setup day, August 1

Ending balance August 31, 2024:  $16542.73

As announced last month, this report incorporates two bank accounts, our ongoing Arvest account and the new savings account we have set up at Truity Credit Union, as we get interest on that account.    

Club projector:  Still working on this.  Gil and Meg have offered to donate to the Club a Dell projector Gil has seen at Tuesday House; it would be worth about $30-50. 

Library display:  We took down our exhibit on August 31.  Thanks go to John B, John G, Craig, Ed and his wife Carol, JoAnn and Evan who worked on takedown.  We had everything out of the case in less than an hour!

The people who work at the library said they enjoyed our exhibit, and so did the people who came to the library and looked at it.  They said that one youth thought it was a museum exhibit!

Library display 2025:  We will have the case on the other side of the library entrance area in March 2025.  That case has 8 panel areas, two feet wide and three feet high each, so we will need to configure our display next year differently!  Ideas are welcome!  We will have a brainstorming session soon to start work on it.  We decided to give ourselves a month or so off and then start planning this fall for next March.

Mall display:  Support our local mall!  We will be needing to move the display that John G set up near the movie theaters, as the soft drink dispensers that were near the movie theaters are now gone.

Club By-laws:  The Club will vote on some revisions to the by-laws at our October meeting. 

Club standing rules:  The Board is also working on some “standing rules” (apart from by-laws), for which no member vote is required.  The standing rules are an “evergreen document” maintained by the Board.

Officer elections for 2025, to take place at our October meeting:

Proposed slate of candidates—

President TBD
Vice President TBD
Secretary Denise Gregg

Treasurer Evan Zorn

At-large Brian Turner

Appointed positions:

Program Director TBD
Newsletter  Mike Woods

Observing Ooordinator TBD
Public Outreach TBD

Mall and library display Denise Gregg

Upcoming Club events:

Tulsa Air and Space Museum planetarium show Saturday, September 7:  This will take place from 5-7 p.m.; Bryan Kyle is planning a two-hour presentation just for us!  They are not charging us for this planetarium show, but donations are encouraged.  Craig proposed that the Club donate $200.00 to the Planetarium; this was approved by all Club members present.

If you like, you can come early to visit the museum itself.  There will be some vintage WWII aircraft on display.  John B pointed out that if you have a membership to a museum that is of the North American Reciprocal Agreement level, you can enter the museum itself for free; be sure to bring your membership card with you.  John B said that his own Woolaroc membership was in this category!  He said his Woolaroc membership would also be good for a 10% discount in their gift shop.

Star party at Jo Allyn Lowe for International Observe the Moon Night, September 14:

We will start gathering around 7:30 p.m. to set up equipment.

Girl Scout event September 20:  We are going to have a star party at Camp Wah-Shah-She Friday, September 20.  Craig is coordinating this event.  There will be about 60 girls in attendance; we will split into two groups of 30.  They will be ages 8 or 9.  Craig wants to take the Club’s Celestron StarSense Explorer to go along with telescopes the Girl Scouts have at Wah-Shah-She.  He would also like to have  someone bring a Seestar.  Four people volunteered to help with this event at the meeting.  Craig wants to go out to Wah-Shah-She ahead of time to collimate the telescopes that are there that he wants to use.  In case of inclement weather, this event will still go on, so we will want to bring astronomical pictures (like we did at a star party last year at Wah-Shah-She) for people to look at inside, if need be.

Eldercare fundraiser--“Dinner Under the Stars” to be held at the Cross Bell Ranch September 28:  John B is coordinating this event.  Several people volunteered to help.  [Note:  After our Club meeting September 5, we found out that this event will need to be delayed to a later date, TBD.]

Star party at the Bolingers’ on October 5:  The Bolingers have very graciously agreed to host a members-only star party for us on October 5.  We plan to gather at 6 p.m. to get a head count, and then order pizza from a pizza place in Nowata which we will then pick up, along with some bottles of favorite soft drinks.  (If you have a favorite kind of water, soft drink, hot tea, etc. you can bring it.)

Other events:

Okie-Tex September 27-October 5:  John B said that some people from the Club are planning to attend this.

Heart of America Star Party put on by the Astronomical Society of Kansas City, October 3-6:  Denise has forwarded an email about this to Club members.

Main program:   PBS video broadcast earlier this year, “Northern Nights, Starry Skies”, presented by photographer Travis Novitsky. 

The video was a visually stunning exploration of the heavens as seen from Voyageurs National Park, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, and Quetico Provincial Park—together comprising the world’s largest designated Dark Sky sanctuary.  The video discussed how artificial light is impacting our world and the movement to reduce the harmful human health and environmental effects of light pollution…in addition to showing beautiful nighttime scenery, including Northern Lights!

During the video, a map of the various levels of dark skies (or not) in the U.S. was shown, and areas where there are dark skies were discussed.  There were photographs shown of cities like Las Vegas, New York City and Chicago, as well as London and Paris, that still have some gas lamps for outdoor lighting.

Cultural astronomy was also discussed in the video; it was observed that stars connect the physical and spiritual worlds. 

Upcoming Club meetings:

October:  Club elections and other business, and something fun

November:  Do you want a telescope for Christmas?

December:  An upcoming year’s worth of meteor showers; possibly a star party

January:  You got a telescope for Christmas.  Now what do you do with it?