October 2025 Meeting Notes

Bartlesville Astronomical Society Meeting Notes

October 6, 2025

Attendance: 

We had 16 members and 1 visitor in attendance this evening, in person and on Zoom.

Astro Quiz--John G:

·   At the September meeting:  Guess the percentage of stars brighter than the Sun.  Answer: 70%.  Our closest answers: 5-10%

·   If you are a Taurus (in astrology), what constellation is the Sun in on your birthday?  Aries

·   What color is the Sun?  White.  It looks yellow to us because the atmosphere scatters shorter wavelengths of light, making it appear yellowish or orangish to us.

Recent Club Events:

·       International Observe the Moon Night at Unity Square on October 4:  We had 80 visitors, ranging in age from children through teenagers to adults.  Some came from OKM’s Oktoberfest and some of the others who visited us were attending a private event at the Community Center.  Eugene, John B, Craig, Luann, Pat and Denise participated in this event and we had both optical and Seestar telescopes.  The weather was beautiful.  Thanks go to Brian T and John G who had initial contacts with the library, and later the Community Center/Unity Square, to plan this event, and to Luann who coordinated the volunteers.  Our visitors enjoyed looking at the Moon poster with the different lunar phases and interesting features to look at each night, that Denise got from the Night Sky Network, and she gave out handouts of these.  We had four requests to be on the newsletter list, and three of those would be interested in the youth group if it ever starts again.  John B showed images at our meeting that he took that night, including M13, Globular Cluster in Hercules; the Eastern Veil Nebula and the M6, the Butterfly Cluster.

Upcoming Club events:

·       Boys and Girls Club of Dewey event on October 23, 4:00-6:30 p.m.  Volunteers needed!

·       Stargazing at Woolaroc on October 30 for Woolaroc members.  Estimated start time around 6:30 p.m.  Volunteers needed!

Possible event to consider:

Denise saw posted in a Night Sky Network email that we could apply for a special guest speaker, hosted by the Harlow Shapley Visiting Lecture Program, that would take place some time in 2026.  The application would need to be submitted by the end of October.  Applying for the special guest speaker would also involve planning other activities, such as star parties, programs for schools and planetarium visits.  The Visiting Lecture Program has a goal of reaching communities or groups of people that have limited access to learning about science.  They encourage working with organizations that focus on such groups as part of this program.  For the main guest speaker public lecture event, they would ideally want to hold it in a venue that could accommodate, say, 250 people.  

We decided not to apply for this for 2026, since we wouldn’t have enough time before the end of October to work on it.  Rebecca said that if the event is held every year, we could consider applying for it in a future year.

John G said that many years ago, Ken Willcox had organized such a large-scale event in Bartlesville, with outside guest speakers, and it had gone very well. 

Upcoming Astronomical Events:

October 6—Full Moon/Harvest Moon, also Supermoon (looks larger due to closer in its orbit)

October 9—Moon close to Pleiades low in E after dark

October 13—Moon near Jupiter low in E after midnight

October 19—Thin crescent Moon near Venus, low in E before sunrise

October 19—Mercury and Mars close, low in SW after sunset

October 20-21—Orionid meteor shower peak 

October 21—New Moon

October 23—Crescent Moon near Mercury, very low in SW after sunset

November 2—Moon and Saturn about three degrees apart, high in S during evening

November 5—Full Moon/Hunter’s Moon, biggest Supermoon of 2025

November 9—Moon near Jupiter, low in E before midnight

November 17-18—Leonid meteor shower, minimal Moon interference, possibly 10 meteors/hour

November 20—New Moon

November 29—Moon and Saturn about three degrees apart in SW during evening

Main presentation:  Voyager, Humanity’s Journey to the Stars, by John B

Both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were launched in 1977, to “boldly go where no man has gone before”, at a cost of 895 million dollars. 

Voyager 2 was launched first, on August 20, 1977.  Voyager 1 was launched second, on September 5, 1977, but traveled faster.

Voyager 1 has traveled over 15 billion miles from Earth, at a speed of over 38,000 mph.  It takes 23 hours for its radio signals to reach Earth, one way.

Voyager 2 has traveled over 13 billion miles from Earth, at a speed of over 34,000 mph.  It takes 19 hours for its radio signals to reach Earth, one way.

Voyager 1 is the human-made object that is farthest from Earth.

Each spacecraft has a 12-foot-diameter radio antenna and 16 thrusters.

Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to have visited the four gas giant planets of our Solar System—Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

The primary mission of the Voyager spacecrafts was to do flybys of Jupiter and Saturn (with Voyager 2 also going to Uranus and Neptune).  Their mission included studying the planets‘ moons, rings and magnetospheres.  The mission was then extended for both spacecraft into interstellar space.

Discoveries made by the Voyager spacecraft include over 400 active volcanoes on Jupiter’s moon Io; a ring around Jupiter; a potential ocean on Jupiter’s moon Europa;  a complex ring structure in Saturn’s rings; a thick, nitrogen-rich atmosphere on Saturn’s moon Titan; new moons and rings around Neptune and Uranus; and nitrogen geyers on Neptune’s moon Triton.

The Voyager spacecraft also made the first direct measurements of the heliopause, the boundary of our heliosphere, where solar wind meets interstellar space.  The heliopause is 11 billion miles from Earth. 

The Voyager spacecraft have also been able to measure magnetic fields and plasma densities beyond the heliosphere.

Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are still communicating with NASA from deep space.  The missions are expected to last into the 2030’s. 

John showed the famous image of the “blue dot” taken by Voyager 1, as part of the “Family Portrait” series of images of planets in our Solar System taken by Voyager 1.

Here are four links about the Voyager mission.  The last is a Star Trek movie clip!

https://science.nasa.gov/gallery/images-on-the-golden-record/

https://science.nasa.gov/mission/voyager/golden-record-contents/sounds/

https://science.nasa.gov/mission/voyager/images-voyager-took/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxAaVqdz_Vk

Treasurer’s Report – Evan Z:

Ending August

$17,934.14

Plus:

 Interest

         $43.99

 One Blackbaud donation

       $160.00

  TOTAL

       $203.99

Less

 Storage fee

         $86.00

 PO Box for year

       $192.00

 State Farm Insurance

       $300.00

 Zoom - annual

         $79.95

 Denise -supplies

         $73.50

  TOTAL

       $731.45

 September 30, 2025, END BALANCE:   $17,406.68

Club elections:

Because Denise Gregg has been Secretary for more than two years, a vote to approve her serving for another year as Secretary was taken before her election as Secretary.

The following Club officers were elected by the Club members present.  Craig Brockmeier made a motion to select the nominated slate of officers and then the voting took place.

President—no one elected.  The duties of the President will be performed by the Board.

Vice President—Evan Zorn

Secretary—Denise Gregg

Treasurer—Luann Wright

Craig Brockmeier made another motion to elect the two Board of Directors Membeers

Board of Directors members-at-large:

John Grismore

Craig Brockmeier

Results of survey questions over the last year:

John G has been passing out sheets of paper over the last year, soliciting answers to various questions.  Here is a summary of those questions, and the answers that Club members have given.  The most frequently mentioned answers are listed first.

·       11/4/24: What astronomy topics interest you most?  Astrophotgraphy, Telescopes and optics, Constellations and Folklore, Eclipses, Comets and Meteors, Northern Lights, Wide Field Observing, Cosmology and Relativity

·       12/2/24: Are there better possible locations for meetings than the Library?  Tri County Tech, Bank Meeting Room, OKWU?, City Hall?, someplace open after 9pm

·       1/6/25: What is the best way for BAS to communicate with the public about club events?  Facebook, Website, Sunrise Reporter, Instagram, Newspaper, Text Blasting

·       2/3/25: What would be the best day and time for club meetings?  Keep what we have, do a survey

·       3/3/25: Which is more important to you, meetings or stargazing events?  Meetings, Stargazing Events, Both

·       4/7/25: What content do you think is the most important to have on the BAS website?  Event Info, Photos & Observations, Meeting Info, Basic Astronomy Info

·       5/5/25: What non-presentation activities would you like to see more of at meetings?  Image sharing, Equipment Demos, Star Parties

·       6/2/25: How much do you use the monthly meeting take-home handouts?  Zero, Twice, Once, Occasionally, Frequently

·       7/7/25: How often should BAS have stargazing events?  Once a Month, As Often as Possible, Every Other Month

·       8/4/25: What kind of meeting programs do you enjoy the most?  Astrophotography, History, Live Speakers, Outside Guests, With Stunning Images, With Food, Entertaining Programs, no speakers that just read the words we all see

·       9/4/25: Are there things the club or its leadership can do to increase our volunteer rate?  Lack of knowledge to answer questions, Get events on calendar early, more events with food and clear skies?

Work on Club website: 

·       Need a lead.

·       Hire a student in the OKWU media department, for a semester?  Meet ahead of time with an OKWU professor? 

·       Work with a media group at Tri County Tech? 

·       Work with high school students?  (They do really good work with athletic scoreboard.) 

·       Tyler mentioned open source media.

November meeting topic:  How a Harem Opened the Universe, by Brian T

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.