October NYC Events 8/ 9

Continued from previous message.

day-old Moon. (I know, Neptune is a couple degrees from the Moon, but
we should get a look at it anyway.) Early arrivers may catch Venus,
now at the start of its grand tour of the evening sky, winding up for
the transit next June.
All of this is set on a soft background of music and short talks.
Altho the Fest officially ends at 23:00, we may enjoy mobs under dark
clear cool sky thru midnight and beyond. If we do, those folk will cap
off the Fest with views of Saturn in rising.
Besides planets, cityfolk will inspect many double stars, star
clusters, and a couple galaxies.
Uh, excuse me, isn't Central Park in the middle of Manhattan?
Yes.
You can't see stars from Manhattan. That's what the orthodox
astronomy litterature teaches.
That's why we have American Urban Star Fest. You will come to it.

New York
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Work around Ground Zero continues with the impending reopen of te
Hudson Tube (PATH) station in November or December. The main emphasis
recently is residential construction or conversion, with about 10,000
homes underway within a kilometer of the WTC campus. Cheapside, the
blocks of discount 'junk' shops between WTC and City Hall is rapidly
upscaling, as one major example.
Part of the push for new homes is the incentive set up after WTC
to encourage people to stay in or move to Lower Manhattan. These are
still active, being grants of up to THREE MONTHS free rent! Other
packages include low-interest loans for rebuilding existing homes,
purchasing furniture, and relocation costs.
On the other hand, retail and other small commercial development is
lagging. Thus far, the growth in new or reopened shops hasn't kept
pace with the new residences. The need is dire with the loss of the
one dominant shopping center in all of Lower Manhattan, the concourse
under the late World Trade Center.
The New York Public Library, serving Manhattan, the Bronx, and
Staten Island, continues accepting donations of books to fill the gap
in budget for book purchases. Unneeded astronomy, science, maths, and
other books can be brought to any of the Library's local branches.
Some branches have collection bins for these books.
West Nile virus quickly spread to all of New York by the 25th of
August. Local spraying, not yet aerial bombing, is underway in select
parts of the City. Stargazers using areas with standing or ponded
water must be specially careful with mosquito protection. The 86 year
old nonIDed female from Pelham Gardens, the Bronx, who on 11 August
2003 caught West Nile, died. In September, two more deaths from West
Nile were logged in the City.

Astro Politics
------------
Amateur Astronomers Association President Michael O'Gara is busily
fulfilling hundreds, perhaps thousands, of requests for details about
the removal of John Pazmino from the Board of Directors. These come
from O'Gara's open offer in his letter in Eyepiece, September 2003.
Sic dixerunt rumores serpentes.
Why not ask the Board members directly? After all, THEY have the
thoughts about the Pazmino removal. Here is a roster of AAA Board
members, with emails. I hope your email server has a generous size
limit for receiving files and attachments!

Susan Andreoli. . .
Lee Baltin . . . .
Alice Barner. . . .
Arline Caldwell . .
Hugo Capra. . . . .
David Clew. . . . . [no email service]
Lynn Darsh. . . . .
Rik Davis . . . . .
Dan Harrison. . . .
Tom Haeberle. . . .
Tony Hoffman. . . .
Bruce Kamiat. . . .
Stephen Lieber. . .
Michael O'Gara. . .
Susan Parrs . . . .
Irv Robbins . . . .
Richard Rosenberg .
Dick Tihany . . . .

The responses you get are part of the acts of the Amateur
Astronomers Association, issued by representatives of and vocalists
for the Association. So, if you want, you may freely share them with
others, like potential new AAA members. Maybe thru NYSkies?

NYSkies
-----
Astronomers are exploiting NYSkies as a quick, handy, friendly, and
potent source of astronomy news relating to the City. And there is
LOTS of astronomy stuff going on around New York! Since it revived on
28 September 2001 (it was interrupted by World Trade Center) NYSkies

Continued in next message.

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