December 2025 Meeting Notes

Bartlesville Astronomical Society Meeting Notes

December 1, 2025

Attendance: 

We had 14 members and 4 visitors in attendance, in person and on Zoom.

Astro Quiz--Evan:

·       If the Sun were the size of a pea, how big would the solar system be—the size of your bathroom, living room or house?  Answer—your house.  The Earth would be about a foot away from the Sun and you would need a microscope to see it.

·       With this scale in mind, how far would the nearest star (besides our Sun) be?  About a mile, across Bartlesville or so, or about 50 miles away?  Answer—about 50 miles away.

·       If the Sun were a basketball, how big would the Earth be?  A period “.”, a peppercorn or a red grape?  Answer—a peppercorn.  About 110 earths would span the diameter of the sun, and about a millions earths would fit into its volume.

Upcoming astronomical event, from John G:

The Moon will pass across the Pleiades Wednesday evening,12/03/25, occulting some of the stars between about 6:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.  (Weather may be cloudy).  Evan showed a SkySafari video for this that John G had prepared. 

10-minute Astronomy—Daryl—Cosmology

·       The focus of Daryl’s excellent presentation was how our view of the universe has developed. 

·       An early vision of our universe had the Earth as the middle, then the Moon, then the other planets, and then there was the firmament with the stars.

·       Copernicus developed a heliocentric view of our universe, with the Sun at the center of our Solar System, but the stars were still a shell around it.

·       Later on, there was the Big Bang theory.  Daryl showed a chart summarizing the Big Bang theory of the universe. 

·       Earth is one of about 3.2 trillion planets and the Milky Way is one of about 2 trillion galaxies.

·       When did we start to think that the Sun was a star?  Around the 1700’s.

·       What has been our view of the age of the universe?

o   1929—about 2 billion years old

o   1955—about 6 billion years old

o   1993—about 10 billion years old

o   2015—about 13.8 billion years old

·       Our Sun formed about 4.6 billion years ago.

·       Our universe is 95% invisible, composed of dark energy and dark matter.  Normal matter composes only about 5% of the universe.

·       In conclusion, Daryl posed these questions—is our universe conscious?  Could our universe be just one page in a higher dimensional library filled with endless cosmic realities?

Recent Club Events:

The Club didn’t have any events this last month.

Upcoming Club events:

·       None scheduled right now; we are coming into the holiday season when we typically don’t schedule evening star parties, since there are so many events planned around the holidays.

·       Denise has found a poster on the Night Sky Network showing the Sun and planets in scale.  She will see about having this enlarged to put into the library display in the far corner where there is some room.

Treasurer’s Report – Luann:

Ending balance October 31, 2025:  $17731.59

Expenses:

Rice Creek Storage $86.00

Additions to Club laptop $338.22

Straps for library posters holder $10.88

Income:

Return leveler for club SeeStar $41.37

Dues $195.00

Truity interest $50.10

Ending balance November 30, 2025: $17582.96

Main presentations: 

First, “A Year’s Worth of Meteor Showers” by Denise

Her presentation this year focused on tips for viewing meteor showers, and a rundown of meteor shower dates for the remainder of this year and into 2026.  She passed out copies of a Night Sky Network sheet on viewing meteor showers.

•        December-January:  Quadrantids.  Runs from December 28-January 12, peak night January 2-3, after midnight, predawn.  Look to N/NE.

•        April:  Lyrids.  Runs from April 14 to April 30, peak night April 21-22, after midnight, predawn.  Look to NE.  

•        April-May:  eta Aquariids.  Runs from April 19 to May 28, peak night May 5-6, after midnight, predawn. Look to S.

•        May-June:  tau Herculids.  Runs from May 19-June 14, peak June 2.  The radiant is in western Boötes, about 8° NW of the bright orange star Arcturus.     

•        July-August:  alpha Capricornids.  Runs from July 3-August 15, peak night July 30-31.  Look to S.

•        July-August:  Southern delta Aquariids.  Runs from July 12-August 23, peak night July 30-31, after midnight, predawn.  Look to S.

•        July-August:  Perseids.  Runs from July 17-August 24, peak night August 12-13, after midnight, predawn, look to NE.  Be alert for a meteor outburst on nights surrounding the peak nights, just in case! 

•        July-August:  kappa Cygnids.  Runs from July 23-August 27, peak August 14.  Radiates from about 5° north of star kappa Cygni in the constellation Cygnus, on the boundary of the Cygnus and Draco constellations.  The kappa Cygnid shower doesn’t appear every year; it tends to appear about every seven years.  It appeared in 2013/2014 and again in 2020/2021.

•        September:  September epsilon Perseids.  Runs from September 2-23, peak September 9.  Radiates from star epsilon Persei in central Perseus.  Can start observing at 8-9 p.m. onwards. 

•        October-November:  Orionids.  Runs from October 2-November 7, peak night Oct. 21-22, after midnight, predawn.  Look to S. 

•        September-December:  Southern Taurids.  Runs from September 20-November 20.  There are two peak nights, October 14 (annual component) and the night of November 4-5 (fireball swarm component).  Radiant visible all night but peak time just before dawn, look to E. 

•        October:  Draconids.  Runs from October 8-9, peak night October 8, late evening, 10 p.m.-midnight or a little past.  Look to NW.

•        October-November:  lambda Ursae Majorids.  Runs from October 18-November 7, peak October 28, predawn, best seen last hour before dawn.  Radiates from southern Ursa Major, 5° NW of 3rd magnitude star psi Ursae Majoris. 

•        October-November:  kappa Ursae Majorids.  Runs from October 28-November 17, peak November 5, predawn, best seen last hour before dawn.  Radiates from SW Ursa Major, 1° E of 4th magnitude star Alkafzah (kappa Ursae Majoris A). 

•         October-December:  Northern Taurids.  Runs from October 20-December 10, peak night November 11-12, late evening, 10 p.m.-midnight or a little past.  Radiates from constellation Taurus. 

•        October-December:  Andromedids.  Runs from October 24-December 2, peak November 6.  Late evening 10 p.m.-midnight or a little after.  Radiates from constellation Andromeda. 

•        November-December:  December phi Cassiopeiids.  Runs from November 28-December 10, peak December 4.  Watch in the evening through midnight or a little after.  Radiates from constellation Cassiopeia/extreme northern Andromeda. 

•        October-November:  Leonids.  Runs from October 28-November 30, peak night November 16-17, after midnight, predawn, look to E/NE. 

•        December:  Geminids.  Runs from December 4-December 17, peak night December 13-14.  Look to E/SE.  Geminids can be seen starting around 9-10 p.m. until morning twilight; best after midnight.  Unlike most meteor showers, the Geminids are visible all night long, since the constellation Gemini arises just an hour or two after nightfall.  The peak viewing time is around 2 a.m. when the radiant is highest.

•        Possible new meteor shower, possibly to be named lambda Sculptorids, originating from Comet 46P/Wirtanen.  Would run from December 10-12, possible peak December 12.  Look to S/SW.

•        December:  Ursids.  Runs from December 17-26, peak night December 21-22, after midnight, predawn.  Look to N. 

Then, Northern Lights on the nights of November 11 and 12, 2025:

Denise showed some of the pictures that she took on the night of November 11, and then a collection of excellent pictures taken by eleven Club members and friends on the nights of November 11 and 12 that she put together into one PowerPoint.  These featured a set of pictures in chronological order, followed by a “Tour de Bartlesville” series by John G. with Bartlesville landmarks in the foreground and Northern Lights in the background.  She then showed a picture of a SAR arc, a different phenomenon sometimes seen along with Northern Lights.  John G also suggested that she discuss recent solar sunspot and X-class solar flare activity, which has been documented in SpaceWeather, which she did!  This included what was recently observed from the Perseverance rover on Mars.  All of this could lead to more Northern Lights in the coming days!

January meeting topic:  

Main presentation—The Parade of Planets, Planetary Alignments for 2026 by John B.