Continued from previous message.

    With the municipal funding crunch, due to the reparations of World 
Trade Center and the overall sluggish economy, the American Museum of 
Natural History (and just about all other cultural facilities) is 
restructuring its events. Please check with the Museum, 212-769-5100, 
before making a major trip to some listed event. I try to include a 
contact in the listing. 
    The Museum closed its Gem & Mineral Hall and Hall of Meteorites on 
May 4th for a renovation, with reopen on 20 September 2003. You can 
water your Museum thirst in the meantime with the rebuilt Hall of 
Ocean Life, opened on May 17th. 
    The Museum extended its SuperSaver all-in-one ticket beyond May. 
No actual enddate but certainly at least thru the summer. This was a 
brief promotion in late April, to end on the 27th, which was which was 
continued into May. 

Astro Politics
 ------------ 
    May was a mad month at Amateur Astronomers Association with the 
runnings and elections for Board seats. Many of the candidates slugged 
it out in NYSkies, with statements deposited in its file area under 
directory 'candidate'. Instances of mismanagement and incompetence 
were exposed in the runnings, which deeply soaked thru the membership 
at the elections held on May 21st. 
    In the end, Election Committee chair Susan Parrs announced that 
all of the Nominating Committee candidates were voted in, all for 
three year terms. The one remaining petition candidate, Phil Pinches, 
missed a seat. The preliminary, unedited, tally was 

    Hugo Capra . . . . . . 47    David Clew . . . . . . 48 
    Daniel Harrison  . . . 42    Tony Hoffman . . . . . 54 
    Phil Pinches . . . . . 37    Richard Rosenberg  . . 43 
    Richard Tihany . . . . 44 

   The announcement of the election results concluded the Meeting and 
the Board meeting began. The Board meeting at the Annual Business 
Meeting elected officers. The new officers for 2003-2004 are 

    President . . . . . . . . Michael O'Gara 
    Vice President  . . . . . Rik Davis 
    Financial Secretary . . . Thomas Haeberle 
    Treasurer . . . . . . . . Richard Tihany 
    Corresponding Secretary . Susan Parrs 
    Recording Secretary . . . Jenny Worsnopp 

    The OG, NYSkies, and GoMSA continue joint events. Well, the April 
5th Turtle Pond viewing was clouded out. They'll be out in force -- 
now with the NYC Chapter of National Space Society! -- for the June 
14th OG meeting about the coming Mars perihelic opposition. 

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. 
    During May, the runnings for Board of Directors seats at AAA, 
NYSkies was the only place the candidates had to speak with their 
potential voters. Their letters, comments, statements were collected 
into the files area for ready reference. 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'. Note well that it's 
'nysky', and not 'NYSkies'. 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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