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 
 ------
    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. . . susana{at}nyrrc.org 
    Lee Baltin  . . . . lbaltin{at}att.net 
    Alice Barner. . . . abarner{at}rcn.com 
    Arline Caldwell . . arlinecaldwell{at}yahoo.com 
    Hugo Capra. . . . . Hugofcapra{at}cs.com 
    David Clew. . . . . [no email service] 
    Lynn Darsh. . . . . LHDarsh{at}aol.com 
    Rik Davis . . . . . fotordavis{at}aol.com 
    Dan Harrison. . . . dsharry2{at}aol.com 
    Tom Haeberle. . . . LunarLandings{at}aol.com 
    Tony Hoffman. . . . Tonyhoffman{at}earthlink.net> 
    Bruce Kamiat. . . . sn1951bk{at}prodigy.net 
    Stephen Lieber. . . stephen.lieber{at}att.net 
    Michael O'Gara. . . envtv{at}concentric.net 
    Susan Parrs . . . . susan.parrs{at}verizon.net 
    Irv Robbins . . . . robbins{at}postbox.csi.cuny.edu 
    Richard Rosenberg . richard.rosenberg{at}verizon.net 
    Dick Tihany . . . . rdt{at}domainconcerns.com 
                         
    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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