Please post on here if you are going to bring your scope to set up outside.
We could also use some folks to man a table on the inside.
I’ll go where I am needed, Mitche.
Eileen
Ida and I will be setting up a table inside. If you still need to pay your Club dues just come to our table. We will have some NSN items to show and some items to give away. We are planning to bring some Club merchandise. If you would like us to bring something please let me know what you would like and what size. I will bring those items.
If you are a CRO member and haven’t got your key to CRO please stop by to see me.
I plan to bring my scope in the evening. Not sure on thr forecast for afternoon solar viewing. If so I’ll come in later afternoon with my solar filter.
Randy
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Looks fairly decent this afternoon according to my Astrospheric app and weather apps.
As of right now, I doubt I’ll make it today.
i’m planning on getting there around 6 to set up.
I plan to bring a scope and setup outside weather permitting. Looks iffy at 11:00 am.
Where are we setting up inside if weather cancels outside?
Sally’s Night will take place in the Marshall Gallery and on the east lawn.
We’ll be playing it by ear on setting up outside.
OKC Astronomy Club Meeting -
Friday, July 11th, 2025 - 7 PM
Speaker: Dava Sobel (joining us via ZOOM)
Title: “Building the Glass Universe”
SCIENCE MUSEUM OF OKLAHOMA
Auditorium
Join us! Free Admission. Feel free to share!
Dava Sobel is the author of Longitude (Walker 1995, Bloomsbury 2005), Galileo’s Daughter (Walker 1999 and 2011), The Planets (Viking 2005, Penguin 2006), A More Perfect Heaven (Walker/Bloomsbury 2011 and 2012), And the Sun Stood Still (Bloomsbury 2016), The Glass Universe (Viking 2016, Penguin 2017) and The Elements of Marie Curie (Grove/Atlantic 2024). She has also co-authored six books, including Is Anyone Out There? with astronomer Frank Drake, and currently edits the “Meter” poetry column in Scientific American.
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I will bring limited Club merchandise. If you would like something please let me know what you would like and what size. I will make sure to bring those items.
If you are a CRO member and haven’t got your key to CRO please stop by to see me.
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The Club usually meets the 2nd Friday of each month at 7 PM depending upon SMO events scheduled.
Tentative titles (To be updated as speakers decide).
August 8th - Tom Field, RSpec: Spectroscopy for
Amateur Astronomers
September 12th - Ed Ting, Telescope Reviews -
Solstice at Stonehenge
October 10th - Travis Rector, University of Alaska & NOIR Labs - Astronomers & Climate Change
November 14th - Michael T. Menzel , RetiredProject Engineer, NASA Goddard - JWST Update
December 12th - Tentative Date depending upon Museum Rental - Club Christmas Party
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Thanks, Eileen! You’re doing a great job lining up fantastic speakers for our meetings!
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Thanks for posting this. I had such a great time listening to Dava speak about the ladies of Harvard and their important work - I learned a lot and enjoyed the presentation. I really looking forward to these dates! Great line up. Super excited for the night on astronomers and climate change!
This is such a cool club to be a part of. Thanks again!
Thanks, All! I appreciate the feedback!
If you have suggestions for speakers or topics you’d like to hear about, please feel free to share!
I would like to see more local speakers but unless folks come forward, his will not happen. I do ask OU and OSU speakers but lots is happening at both schools that prevent their participation. Hopefully, things will settle and their willingness to participate will change!
Eileen
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OKCAstronomy Club Meeting - Friday, August 8th, 2025 - 7 PM
Science Museum of Oklahoma
Speaker: Tom Fields, RSpec
Title: Spectroscopy for Amateur Astronomers - Easy Science with a Star’s Spectrum
Last month we heard Dava Sobel speak about the Women at the Harvard Observatory and “The Glass Universe” they collected using the emerging technique in the early 20th century we call Spectroscopy. So how can amateur astronomers use this strategy to expand upon the universe in 2025 with your own telescope?
Haven’t you always wanted to “do some science” with your telescope or standalone DSLR?
The science is easy and exciting. With just a small telescope you can easily:
- determine any star’s OBAFGKM star-type and temperature from its spectra curve.
- identify the composition of a star or nebula from its emission and absorption lines.
- detect the cosmological red-shift of a distant quasar!
- measure the blue-shift of a supernova’s expanding shell as it races towards us at millions of miles/hour.
From Tom…
All of us enjoy the beauty of the night sky. For many years, I wanted to see beyond that beauty. I wanted to understand more about the science of the stars. I wanted to learn more about the great discoveries in the field. I wanted to understand more about the life cycle of stars and the science behind that. But, to be honest, it was a struggle. I needed to find a way to go beyond simple imaging. When I captured my first star spectra, I discovered that my understanding of the stars
started to grow in leaps and bounds. To capture the spectra, there is no steep learning curve. There’s no complicated software processing. There’s no need for a lot of math or to have a Ph.D. in astrophysics. And there’s no need for expensive equipment or dark skies. All it takes is an inexpensive 1.25" grating, and a small telescope (or DSLR). With a few clicks, you get exciting scientific results. And from those results, you can gain a rich understanding of the life cycle of stars.
Join me and the thousands of our peers who are now happily capturing spectra!
In this presentation, I’ll show you how easy and exciting it is to do hands-on astronomical science!
Speaker Bio: Tom Field was a Contributing Editor at Sky & Telescope Magazine for ten
years. He’s the founder of Field Tested Systems and the author of the RSpec software
(www.rspec-astro.com) which received the S&T “Hot Product” award. A pioneer in
amateur astronomical spectroscopy, Tom promises to demystify the field and open the
door for you to do easy hands-on science.
OKC Astronomy Club Meeting - Friday, September 12th at 7 PM
Presenter: Ed Ting
Title: “Stonehenge at the Winter Solstice”
Ed Ting is a well-known amateur astronomer whose works have appeared in Sky & Telescope Magazine, Astronomy, Skywatch, Discover, and Popular Mechanics magazine. He is a National Science Foundation Ambassador to Chile, a Mission Patagonia ambassador, and a NASA Solar System Ambassador. His science-themed YouTube channel has over 69,000 subscribers and gets two million views a year. In addition to his science writing, Ed’s creative works have appeared in literary journals. He is a past winner of the New Hampshire Flash Fiction contest, and was selected as Writer-in-Residence at the Writer’s Center for the Fine Arts in Edgartown, Massachusetts in 2016. Ed holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois,
From New England College, and an MA from Dartmouth, where he produced an award-winning thesis on astronomical imaging, and there he produced the graduate school’s new astronomy-themed logo Truly a man for all seasons, Ed is a classical/New Age pianist, a retired bicycle racer, and an enthusiastic fudge confectioner.
Stonehenge has fascinated mankind for thousands of years. After taking an archeology/Stonehenge class at Oxford in the summer of 2023, Ed returned to Stonehenge for the winter solstice of 2023. Discover what we know, and what we don’t know about this well-known “henge”, and what steps you can take to visit this most ancient ruin.
Ed shared that when he was a kid, his science teacher told him that photocopier lenses make good telescope objective lenses. He and his buddy would go around to office buildings and ask if they had any dead copiers. They brought their tools with them. His first telescopes were built around those scavenged lenses.
Due to Ed’s areas of interest, I inquired further. In Ed’s own words…
I am an amateur astronomer, just like the rest of you. I am fascinated by telescopes, mounts, and imaging equipment. Like most people, observing through a telescope caused an innate desire to capture what I saw through the eyepiece, and that’s what led me to dive into the “imperfect”frustrating world of astrophotography.
Where else have your observing/photography travels taken you? (I know you did a great job for CBS Sunday Mornings before the last Solar Eclipse in April of 2024.)
I’ve been to Chile three times – twice for ACEAP (2017, 2018) and once for Mission Patagonia (2025).
Knowing you own more telescopes than most people, how did you get involved in Telescope
Reviews? Benefits? Downsides?
In 1997 I started Scopereviews for one simple reason – I didn’t know html code and needed to learn it. I never expected that people would be reading it. In 2020, I started the YouTube channel for a simple reason – I didn’t know anything about film making. I never expected that people would be watching it
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Speaker: Ed Ting
Topic: Stonehenge at the Winter Solstice
Come join us!
We will have some Club merchandise available at this Friday’s Club meeting. We now have 2026 calendars for sale.
If you are looking for any T-shirts, CRO long sleeve shirts. Okie-Tex Sweatshirts, Beanies. Ball Caps, CRO Mugs or other items please let me know so I can make sure we bring them. Need to know what size shirts you need.
Club Meeting will be Friday, October 10th @ 7 PM.
Stay Tuned for a possible CHANGE to November Club Meeting as the SMO is rented on our normal meeting night.
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