July 2025 Meeting Notes

Bartlesville Astronomical Society Meeting Notes

July 7, 2025

Attendance: 

We had 16 members and 11 visitors in attendance this evening, in person and on Zoom.

Astro Quiz--John G:

·       How much dust and sand-size particles by weight fall to Earth each day from space?  Answer:  100 tons.  John B’s guess was closest at 1250 tons.

·       How many stars are in the observable universe?  1 septillion

·       What is the average distance between stars in the Milky Way?  5 light years

Ten-minute Astronomy:  Kitt Peak National Observatory by Evan

·       Kitt Peak National Observatory was founded in 1958, spearheaded by the National Science Foundation.  It was built on Native American land, using a perpetual agreement to use the land for the observatory. 

·       The observatory has 24 telescopes—optical, infrared and radio.  Only three of the telescopes are owned and operated by the U.S. government!  Universities lease many of the others.  This is one of the largest collections of telescopes in the Northern Hemisphere.

·       Kitt Peak Observatory hosted the first telescope to search for near-Earth asteroids. 

·       Kitt Peak Observatory offers an overnight viewing program for visitors.

·       Kitt Peak Observatory is taking part in a dark energy study; the observatory is two years into a five-year study.  40,000,000 galaxies are being studied for Doppler redshift—100,000 galaxies per night!  A large, 3-D map of the sky is being prepared.   Preliminary results of the study indicate that dark energy is “dynamic”. 

Recent astronomical event:

We watched a video of a bright green fireball taken by our new friend David G, who got in touch with our Club via the Night Sky Network!  He saw the fireball near Hogshooter Creek on May 21, 2025, at 3:46 a.m.  Everyone enjoyed the video—the fireball was quite striking!  Before the meeting Denise looked up the event in the American Meteor Society fireball logs and if the report she looked at was indeed the report for the fireball he saw, it was seen in Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri!

Recent Club Events:

·       Stargazing at the library July 2:  We had 25 visitors to this event, ranging in age from children through adults!  We set up equipment on the north side of the library starting at 7:45 p.m., invited people to attend starting at 8:15 p.m. (some came while we were setting up!) and we started taking things down around 10:30 p.m.—the last left between 10:30 and 11 p.m.  Thanks go to Luann, John G, Pat, Craig, Evan and Denise, who helped with the event.  Attendees got good views of the first quarter Moon, as well as some stars.  The group was interested and enthusiastic and had lots of good questions.  Some came early and stayed late, while others stayed for a while, looking through different telescopes, and then moved on.  The library is enthusiastic about partnering with us again to do a similar event!

Upcoming Club events:

·       The event that had been planned for Osage Hills State Park on July 22 has been cancelled.  Denise had been contacted by Peggy Walker with Sidewalk Astronomy in Broken Arrow to have us participate in an event for Native American students from three schools that would be bussed into Osage Hills State Park on July 22, but this event will not take place. 

·       Possible follow-up stargazing at the library in a few weeks (date not yet set)

·       We didn’t discuss this in more detail at this meeting, but we are planning a daytime event at Woolaroc on August 23.

·       October 4 is International Observe the Moon Night; Brian T is working to set something up for this event at the library.

Upcoming Astronomical Events:

·       Interstellar comet 3I/Atlas was discovered July 1, 2025.  This is the third interstellar object observed in our Solar System.  The size of the comet’s nucleus is not known at this time.  Astronomers are eagerly monitoring this comet in telescopes!

·       July 10—Full Moon/Buck Moon

·       July 16—Moon near Saturn low in the east after midnight

·       July 17—last quarter Moon

·       July 20—Moon passes through Pleiades, 3-5 a.m.

·       July 24—New Moon

·       July 28—Moon 1 degree from Mars

·       July 30-31—Delta Aquariid meteor shower, radiant in SE after midnight

·       August 1—First quarter Moon

Treasurer’s Report – Evan Z:

Ending balance May 31, 2025: $17,378.21.

Additions:

Truity interest $43.56

Blackbaud Donation $160.00

Subtractions:

Storage for club equipment and materials $86.00

Ron Carman trip reimbursement $348.80.

Astronomical League annual dues $178.00.

Amazon purchase for camera for meetings $166.56.

Amazon purchase for Tripod and Remote for said camera $105.13.

Ending balance June 30, 2025: $16,697.28.

Main presentation:  Northern Lights by Denise Gregg

·       Denise discussed how Northern Lights come to be—and be seen in Oklahoma!—using as case studies the spectacular (in camera) Northern Lights displays in Bartlesville on the nights of May 10, 2024 and October 10, 2024.

·       The Sun is the ultimate origin of Northern Lights.  When the Sun is at the peak of the eleven-year solar cycle, stronger sunspots, solar flares and coronal mass ejections lead to stronger geomagnetic storms above Earth, which in turn lead to Northern Lights at lower latitudes. 

·       High-speed solar wind streams, when they encounter the slower solar wind in front of them, can create co-rotating interaction regions, or CIRs, which can also lead to Northern Lights.

·   The potential intensity of Northern Lights is indicated by the predicted strength of a geomagnetic storm (levels range from 0, minor, up to 5, severe) and Kp levels, which range from 0 (low) to 9 (high).  Kp is a common index used to indicate the severity of the global magnetic disturbances in near-Earth space.

·   There is also a hundred-year solar cycle, the Gleissberg Cycle.  Indications are that the solar minimum of this cycle has just passed; if this is correct, solar cycles for the next 50 years may increase in strength, and we could see more Northern Lights in Oklahoma!

·   Denise also discussed what causes the various colors seen in Northern Lights (charged particles interacting with atoms of different elements) and showed examples of the various colors.

·   Denise recommended photographing the night sky to the N/NW/NE, wherever you would typically view Northern Lights, on nights when you know there are none, so you have “control” pictures to compare to ones taken when you think you may see them, but you’re not sure!

·   She also recommended taking pictures to the south on a strong aurora night—you could potentially even see them to the south on a strong night!

·   Denise also briefly discussed STEVE (Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement) and SAR Arcs (Stable Auroral Red Arcs), which are phenomena that are not aurorae per se but can be seen with them.

Reminders:

BAS has equipment, books, educational materials and scopes available for loan to qualifying members.

Requests:  We would like to include member astrophotography, ranging from handheld smartphone pictures, to unguided camera on a tripod shots, to telescopic images, at future BAS meetings. Please email them to bvilleastro@gmail.com.

BAS needs volunteers:

We need volunteers for public star parties and other observing events.  All members are encouraged to help out with some of these events.  In addition to telescopes, help is needed with setup, answering general stargazing questions, conversing with and encouraging visitors, providing handouts and signup sheets. If you can help, contact jrgrismore@icloud.com.