Continued from previous message.

    While free, you have to register to get on the boat at the Coast 
Guard ferry depot, just east of the Staten Island ferry terminal. Call 
the phone or visit the website for further information. 
    Here is one of the utterly unique chances to make a signature 
darksky project! Wisely darksky fans know that, despite the luminous 
graffiti ringing the horizon, the sky overhead is amazingly dark when 
viewed from the Staten Island ferry. That view lasts only about 
fifteen minutes during the ride. The ferry passes Governors Island, a 
fabulous prospect for a terra firma urban skywatching base, along with 
the other public amenities planned for it. 
    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. On 11 August 
2003 New York logged its first West Nile case of the year. A 86 year 
old nonIDed female from Pelham Gardens, Bronx, caught it, and quickly 
developed encephalitis, which is a new and increasingly common 
complication of West Nile virus. 

Astro Politics 
 ------------
    August 2003 was the mad month at Amateur Astronomers Association. 
NYSkies continues the dialog on the severe troubles of AAA noted in 
earlier NYC Events. Major writings by senior AAAers and Board 
seatholders are placed in files area under folder '\AAAStuff'.  
    John Pazmino, victim, and Stew Rorer, witness, on 12 June filed a 
complaint for the menacing of Pazmino by Daniel Harrison. After 
obtaining copies of the complaint, Rorer, as a favor, mailed it to 
the Board members on 10 July 2003. He, by computer process, put on the 
envelopes the AAA's, rather than his or Pazmino's, return address. 
    After the Board received Rorer's mailing, President Michael O'Gara 
set a Board meeting for 28 July 2003 just to kick Pazmino off the 
Board. O'Gara wrote an official AAA letter to Pazmino, dateed 1 August 
2003 and mailed on 6 August. Both this letter and the minutes of the 
July 28th meeting are in '\AAAStuff\Association'. 
    O'Gara suppressed efforts to defend Pazmino. He barred three 
supporters for Pazmino, who made special trips to AAA headquarters fo 
the July 28th meeting, from entering, attending, or participating at 
the meeting. He selectively recited at the meeting an explanatory 
letter from Rorer, but did not hand it out in printout or email form. 
    As August ended, the September 2003 reached the AAA membership 
with a President's letter on page 3. It gave O'Gara's account of the 
Pazmino removal, which is already generating dialog on NYSkies.
    Enough? Nope. That very Eyepiece continues ignoring the Staten 
Island chapter, not even welcoming its new chair Larry Ventura. And it 
didn't apologize for the botched Seminar dates in the August issue. 

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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