Continued from previous message.

balloons and moored ones attached to floats. Due to the bright
daylight, the fabled moonlights along the route were not as prominent
as on a cloudy day. Yet I'm sure darksky leaders taped the parade to
show off the lamppoles at light pollution meetings.

Astro Politics
 ------------
    The utterly incomprehensible event was the massive larceny
striking the office of Amateur Astronomers Association on November
8th. In the afternoon the Observing Group had its regular monthly
meeting and many attendees brought equipment for the lunar eclipse on
that evening.
    Six left their gear in the office, duly closed down and locked,
while they went for supper. This was done to avoid dragging it all to
the coffee shop and clogging its aisles and tables.
    When they returned to get their equipment and set off for the
eclipse viewing in Central Park, everything was gone! Plain gone!!
Included in the theft were several telescopes, large binoculars,
tripods, accessories, cameras, books, luggage, extra clothing.
    Police from the 19th praecicnt arrived, studied the scene, and took
a report. Probably due to the minor amount of loss -- it took place in
the richest district in the country! -- and the pressing call from
serious crimes, only a quick investigation could be done.
    AAA is discussing the matter with its  building managers and
insurance company.
    On top of this catastrophe, AAA continues to suffer decrepitude in
its leadership. The Enjoy the Stars brochure, altho printed in October
and handed out at some club meetings, is still not issued to the
membership. It's part of the dues renewal mailing in early December.
    That's dilapidation of duty enough, but there's more. The edition
now in hand is a second printing. The first was scrapped for having
excessive mistakes. The club endured two instances of printing costs.
    The class which Rachel Connolly ran in October and November is a
different paradigm of astronomy tuition from that implemented by Stew
Rorer and John Pazmino. Yet, the writeup in Enjoy the Stars, in the
second 'corrected' edition, for her class is the same as in previous
editions for the Rorer & Pazmino class. Only the instructor is changed
to Rachel Connolly.
    There were no minutes issued from the Board of Directors meeting
of August 27th as at the November 19th meeting.  After a couple
seatholders agitated about the lack of minutes to read and approve,
the minutes finally were issued on November 24th.  The
    ByLaw reforms, to make the Board more open, answerable, and
responsive to AAA members, are 'old business'. Only a few of them were
even brought to the table, last done in January. Since then there was
no further action. It seems that the reforms, sponsored by Steve
Lieber and Bruce Kamiat, will be killed by simply not ever including
them in Board agenda for the rest of the season.
    Eyepiece, the club's newsletter, had an ad in its November 2003
issue for club baseball caps. It suggested getting one to wear at the
American Urban Star Fest. The Fest already took place in October.
    Eyepiece, November 2003, printed on its front page a major part of
Steve Lieber's NYSkies article about light pollution, with no credit
or reference to him. Steve issued in NYSkies a thank-you letter,
noting that Eyepiece's pass-along of NYSkies material helps readers
missing NYSkies or lacking Internet service.
    Eyepiece for December 2003 posted wrong dates for the Recent
Astronomy Seminar: December 4th and 11th! The correct dates -- as
noted in the events here -- are 4 and 18 December.

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
became the definitive forum and public record for matters bearing on
home astronomy in and around New York.
    Granted, some of the banter relates particularly to the Amateur
Astronomers Association. It's the major astronomy union in town and
every home astronomer around here eventually runs up against it. It
pays to listen to those discussions (rants? blusters? tirades?), even
if you opt out of playing in them. At the least, you take into account
the words of the senior members before joining the Association. Or you
can let NYSkies dialog modulate your choice to renew AAA membership.
    NYSkies is the soapbox the AAA Board and rank-&-file had to speak
out on various Association problems. They turned to NYSkies simply
because the AAA as yet does not have a good faith sincere forum for
its own members within itself.
    Joining NYSkies is easy. Send an empty email to this Yahoo
maillist at 'nysky-subscribe{at}yahoogroups.com'. Its posts are sent to
you in your email and you post to it by email. It's that simple!
    Or you may go to 'groups.yahoo.com/group/nysky'. If you are already
signed up with Yahoo, you go and sign in and then 'join' NYSkies. If
not, you have to go thru a silly 'registration' that's a oneshot
chore, valid for all groups you may eventually join. The files and
calendar area of NYSkies are accessible only thru the website.

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