Continued from previous message.

history. Well, yes, but barely so. There were other close proximities 
in the 20th century which were essentially no worse than this year's. 
But, yes, seeing Mars this year puts you in history.  
    In general weather in June was, uh, awful. Almost every day was 
cloudy or rainy! Only a couple isolated clear evenings came along. The 
mid term prospects for July is more of the same cloud and rain. 
Already by June 21st, New York surpassed the alltime record for rain 
in June, 250mm. 
    Lousy weather scotched the City's view of luminous clouds sent up 
from Wallops Island, Virginia. Scheduled for 23 June, the shots, a set 
of 4 rockets over a three hour span, were repeatedly called off. They 
were finally sent up on 29-30 June in midnight hours. The City sky was 
covered with cloud and haze with no stars at all visible. The Wallops 
Island clouds would have resembled auroral patches in southeast or 
south at about 20 degree altitude. 

Special Events 
 ------------ 
    The megaevent continues to be the new Einstein exhibit at the 
American Museum of Natural History, the largest and fullest of any 
Einstein ever. It's on the fourth floor, with the dinosaurs, and is a 
must-see for anyone visiting the City. Please hurry! This exhibition 
packs up on July 27th. Main reason is to allow the next stop on the 
national circuit, the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago IL, 
extra time to set it up. The exhibit opens there on October 17th. 
    The second megaevent, a lot smaller but really good, is the DNA 
show at Science Industry Business Library on Madison Avenue between 
34th and 35th St. You can do it within lunch. Centerpiece is the 
replica of the original DNA model built by Watson and Crick, all 
spread out in a giant 'specimen jar'. 

New York 
 ------ 
    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 July. This was a brief 
promotion in late April, which was then extended.
    By end of June the PATH (H&M) station at Exchange Place, Jersey 
City NJ, reopened after damage from World Trade Center on 2001 
September 11. When the towers fell, their content of water in pipes 
and mains was squirted into the PATH station under them and shoved 
thru the two-kilometer tunnels under Hudson River. The water burst up 
into Exchange Place. causing all manner of panic. 
    If this water was sea water, the tunnels were crushed, allowing 
the full Hudson River to flood them. By good fortune, the tunnels were 
whole. Only [massive] fresh, municipal, water damage was suffered.   
During the closing, Exchange Place was rebuilt for longer trains and a 
switchyard installed for turning or shuffling them. 
    The final phase of reconstruction is the World Trade Center 
station inside of Ground Zero, booked to  reopen this coming November. 
This will restore PATH service to Lower Manhattan and allow certain 
other rail projects, notably Secaucus Transfer, to become fully 
operational. 
    A contest opened in May 2003 for the public to design the World 
Trade Center memorial. Several NYSkiers are enrolled and are 
developing some really intriguing plans! Other NYSkiers, engineers and 
architects, are offering general assistance for them. 

 Astro Politics 
 ------------ 
    May and June were mad months at Amateur Astronomers Association 
with the runnings and elections for Board seats. Instances of 
mismanagement and incompetence were exposed in the runnings, some thru 
dialog in NYSkies. 
    AAA's President Michael O'Gara slated an emergency Board meeting 
for June 19th to review the runnings and elections. He faced three 
severe crises from the Annual Meeting of 21 May 2003. These are his 
abusive behavior toward voter Julian Parks, his exoneration of Dan 
Harrison after he menaced, possibly criminally so, fellow Board member 
John Pazmino, and his removal of David Nevin from the ballot by 
erroneous application of the ByLaws. 
    There are many lesser, but important, matters. The April and May 
2003 Eyepiece offered untimely and inadequate instructions to the 
rank-&-file members; O'Gara's displeasure with the present AAA 
headquarters; mishandling of dues renewals. This last was the reason 
O'Gara offered for taking out a post office mailbox at a cost of 
several hundred dollars per year. 
    He further more carries the burden of Eyepiece's mistreatment of   
a book review author, who revoked his name from the article; a very 
compromising 'apology' in the June 2003 Eyepiece attributed to O'Gara; 

 Continued in next message.

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