June 2025 Meeting Notes

Bartlesville Astronomical Society Meeting Notes

June 2, 2025

Attendance: 

We had 14 members and 6 visitors in attendance this evening, in person and on Zoom.

Astro Quiz--John G:

·       How many known near-Earth asteroids will have passed closer to Earth than the Moon between May 31, 2024 and May 31, 2025?  Actual Answer: 160.  Closest Guess: Meg, who guessed 31.

·       Among the 88 official constellations, there are many land animals.  For some constellations, there are two of the same kind of animal.  How many such pairs are there?  There are four pairs:  Ursa Major and Ursa Minor; Canis Major and Canis Minor; Leo and Leo Minor; and Pegasus and Equuleus.

·       What constellation is named after a person?  Cassiopeia

·       How many stars are not in a constellation?  One, our Sun

Ten Minute Astronomy:  Astrophotography with a Smart Phone by Gil

Gil discussed these elements of astrophotography with a smart phone:

·       Buy an attachment that you can mount to the top of a tripod to attach a smart phone on.

·       Gil has experimented with astrophotography using a Samsung 108 megapixel smart phone with a stylus, and a Samsung Note 20 Ultra smart phone

·       For Milky Way pictures, try using ISO 640 and take pictures in “raw” if possible

·       An upgrade:  get Move Shoot Move camera rotator made by Nomad.  To use it, you would set it to Polaris.

·       An upgrade:  get Siril free photograph stacker.  There are lots of YouTube videos that discuss how to use Siril.  With Siril you can do stacking of photographs, including deeper-space objects.

·       YouTube is your friend.  Gil recommends Sarah Castro astrophotography YouTube videos, in which she discusses such topics as how to use iPhones and Siril.

Recent Club Events:

·   May 20—Luann discussed the very successful solar observing event at Bartlesville High School for AP Physics classes:  This event was held during the school day for three morning classes and two afternoon classes, with 10-15 students per class.  They were able to observe sunspots.  Thanks go to Luann, John G, Evan, Craig, John B, Eugene and Denise who participated in this event.

·       Sunfest, May 30-June 1: 

o   We had 362 visitors to our Sunfest booth--129 Friday, 157 Saturday and 76  Sunday.  Ten people wanted the newsletter.  Six of those wanted the BYA newsletter, if it ever starts again.  Most people who wanted the newsletter said they heard about us from Sunfest; two put down library display.  A number of people commented that they’d noticed our display at the mall, and some mentioned the library display.  One person said they looked at our library display every year! 

o   Last year we had 428 visitors.  The only thing Denise can think of to account for fewer this year is that we had to set our booth back a few more feet from the walkway because on Friday, it was quite muddy next to the walkway.   The weather was great, though, the entire weekend!

o   John G had a great idea, to put photographs in our stand-up easels rather than our laminated Club sheets with QR code, etc.  People did notice the pictures!  One of the favorites was Mike’s stunning picture from last year of the solar eclipse with the “diamond ring”!

o   Thanks so much to Craig (who worked every shift, in addition to being the canopy setup and takedown instructor), Denise (who also worked every shift), and John G, John B, Evan, Brian, JoAnn, Luann and Gil who volunteered with setup, takedown, and/or working one or more booth shifts! 

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. 

·       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:

June 2 – First Quarter Moon

June 11 – Full Moon/Strawberry Moon

June 18 – Last Quarter Moon

June 20 – June solstice

June 24 – Jupiter’s position in the sky will be close to the Sun, making it unobservable for several weeks

June 25 – New Moon

Treasurer’s Report – Evan Z:

Ending balance April 30, 2025: $18,337.18.

Income:

·       Truity interest $44.86

·       Blackbaud Donation $160.

Expenses:

·       Storage for club equipment and materials $86

·       Sunfest booth fee $50

·       Flickr for pictures – annual Flickr Pro membership fee $51.09

·       Tri-county Tech Center for room rental $95

·       Denise-reimbursement, Sunfest printing & supplies $42.61

·       Leveler for SeeStar $38.98

·       SeeStar $597.86

·       Secretary of State - annual org. form fee $15

·       Shelves for storage $151.37

·       Wheels for said shelves $35.92

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

Main presentation:  “Moonwatch and the Early Days of BAS” by Ron Carman, charter member of BAS in 1958

Ron operated a ham radio starting in 1955.  He was at College High when Sputnik was launched in 1957.  Dr. Norman Foster, who worked at the Bureau of Mines in Bartlesville and was a guest at College High, started the Moonwatch organization to look for satellites, and he was looking for volunteers who were ham radio operators to participate in the Moonwatch program.  In addition to being a ham radio operator, Ron had read the Hidden Planets book and had become interested in astronomy, so he volunteered.  (Ron also enjoyed H.A. Rey’s book The Stars; Ron got a telescope as well and could see the four moons of Jupiter.)  The Smithsonian sent star charts to the fledgling group!

Ron was a charter member of the Club when it began in 1958.  There were four high school students in the Club when it formed, including Ken Willcox.  They met every Friday night.  They put together an 8-inch telescope and bought a mirror for it.

The Club’s initial observing site was south of Price Road on the Mitchell family farmland.  Ron isn’t sure how long their farm was used as an observing site by the Club. 

Ron majored in chemistry in college but later decided to have a career in aviation.  He went to flight training school and became instrument-rated…but then airlines started laying off pilots, so he began working at the Air Traffic Control Center in Houston near IAH airport.  (At this center, personnel watch aircraft on radar as they travel over the U.S.)  Ron worked there over 32 years.  While living in Houston, Ron volunteered at the Houston Museum of Natural Science and helped install telescopes at the George Observatory.

Ron came to speak to our Club, at the invitation of Ken Willcox, in March 1990.

The early days of the Club were written up in the BMonthly magazine in November 2022; they interviewed Ron and we sent Ron a copy of the magazine. 

Ron saw a partial solar eclipse in Bartlesville in July, 1963, but didn’t see his first total solar eclipse until August 2017, when he went to Illinois to view it.  For the April 2024 total solar eclipse he went to Fredericksburg, TX—but the skies were totally overcast at the time of totality!

Ron is charter member of the North Houston Astronomy Club and is also a member of the Austin Astronomical Society.

Ron has taught the astronomy merit badge at Boy Scout camps and has also taught the geology merit badge.

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.