October NYC Events 7/ 9

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removed from the property. This admonition is a fallout from the
ongoing revision of access to various lands across the country.
As NYC Events is circulated among astronomers all over the world
(it's posted into several astronomy Internet newsgroups, for
instance), operators of astronomy-related activities are sending in
their programs and schedules. As long as they are within the commuting
ring of New York, I can include them.
NYC Events will ALWAYS be incomplete, simply because there are
astroevents out there I didn't learn about. NYC Events is also less
than complete because I put in the major public events at which the
sponsor has (I hope!) information about its other features.
The NYSkies calendar section and NYC Events now are essentially
congruent. More over, many NYSkiers lack web service, while NYC Events
is emailed to all NYSkiers. Print the calendar in landscape mode to
avoid clipping off the far right days.
When a new event is noticed, or an existing has substantial
change, in the calendar it is tagged with '(CLICK)'. That tells you
there are details and a contact behind your mouse click.
The American Museum of Natural History extended indefinitely its
SuperSaver ticket and the alternating Hayden Planetarium spaceshows. I
no longer include these as 'events' being that they are, for the
immediate future, permanent features of the Museum.

Skywatching
---------
The miserable clouds and rain of summer broke in September. Yes,
we still had the lousy weather, but there were frequent clear evenings
tossed in for good starviewing. NYSkiers continue to inspect Mars and
delighted to the still-large disc, polar caps, and maria. No large new
dust storms erupted so far.
There were few organized Mars watches in September, but the planet
was a favorite feature of the ongoing starviewings all over the
NYSkies territory. About 2/3 into September several NYSkiers, almost
simultaneously from various parts of the City, spotted Venus! She's
still a tough target in bright twilight. Once found, she'll be your
skymate for the rest of her synodic loop. She'll end that loop in June
2004 with her crossing over the face of the Sun! Creeping into view by
month end was Saturn, for those viewing into the midnight hours.
The Tribute in Light memorial beams shining thruout the night of
September 11th to dawn on the 12th, were totally innocuous toward
starviewing. As it turned ot, some parts of the City were clouded over
anyway. The beams were visible from as far as 120 kilometers away and
reached, based on altitude measurements in hand, as high as 25
kilometers!
There was some public grumbling about the short time the beams
were shining. They 'should' be lighted permanently. City officials
explained that, like Memorial Day and Veterans Day, the anniversary of
WTC is a one-day remembrance. Tribute of Light will, according to
current plans, return on each future anniversary.

Special Events
------------
The Museum reopened its Gem & Mineral Hall and Hall of Meteorites
after a renovation on 20 September 2003. Ahnighito is still in place
where it was, on stilts reaching to Manhattan bedrock, with its sister
displays all redone and updated. Check out, also, the rehabbed
adjacent Hall of Gems & Minerals!
The megaevent in October is the American Urban Star Fest in
Central Park's Sheep Meadow. This is the nation's most festive and
romantic of starparties, despite its setting in the middle of
Manhattan.
Unlike conventional 'star parties', American Urban Star Fest is a
public celebration of the starry skies, resulting from New York's
ongoing, tho slow, progress toward the mitigation of luminous
graffiti. This is accompanied by the crescendo of popular awareness
that New York is the hub of the universe, a situation that requires it
to have a clear prospect on the surrounding worlds and orbs.
This mindset may seem queerly preCopernican. It is, in a
philosophical sense, not physical. Most folk here understand that the
Earth, with the City, is one of the nine (not eight!) planets. Yet, by
a survey made in the 1930s, before the Hubble expansion was widely
appreciated and the cosmos was a geometric construct, the exact center
of it all is under the southwest corner of Fifth Avenue and 42nd
Street. This is strictly no longer valid, due to the nonEuclid
character of space and Einstein's mixing of time into it, but it's
still cool to stand there and imagine that in any direction it's as
far to the frontier of creation as in any other.
So, what better way to let the populance say, 'We are the world!'
than a lazy lawn picnic under their own stars? And so, at sundown on
Saturday 4 October 2003, several thousand cityfolk will (weather
permitting) pour down from their residence towers, out of subway
kiosks, off of buses, and troop into Sheep Meadow of Central Park.
There they'll spread out their blankets; break out packed suppers;
deploy chairs, binoculars, starcharts; wrap in sweaters or shawls.
And take in the cosmic view that belongs to New York as much as
New York belongs to it. And, with clear skies, stars they will see!
All of them to 4 or 4-1/2 magnitude, from the 'basin' of Central Park.
They'll see Hercules, Cygnus, Pegasus, Aquarius, Cepheus, Cassiopeia,
and many other groups. They'll study Mars, Uranus, Neptune, and a 8-

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