President Bernie Zelazny called the meeting to order at 7:30 PM in Room 300 Lawrence Hall on the Sul Ross Campus.  There were 16 people present.  The minutes of the previous meeting were accepted as printed in the May Newsletter.  John Bell gave a program on the naming of astronomical objects.

       Betty Grimm submitted the following treasurer's report:

       End of minutes.

       Who decides how to name things in the heavens?  Is anyone - just anybody - free to name anything in the sky?  There are businesses that will name a star after you for a price, or in honor of anyone you designate.  But will the astronomical community recognize and use such a name?  The names of stars and other astronomical objects are in fact chosen by international astronomi-cal organizations who are not in the business of selling stars or their names.
       Some definitions:  astronomy studies the arrangement of the stars; astrology seeks to explain the influence of the heavens on human affairs; and astrometry concerns the measurement of the stars, especially their positions.  We find astro and aster in a great many of our terms.  For example, an asterism is a meaningful collection of stars, such as the Big Dipper.  But please note that an asterism is not necessarily an official constellation, such as Ursa Major.  A disaster is a calamity alleged in the old days to be caused by a bad star.  An asterisk is a mark that often refers you to a footnote warning that an advertised deal isn't as good as it looks.  An asteroid is an object that looks like a star in a telescope, but isn't, because it can be seen to move like a planet.  A meteoroid is like a meteor but outside the earth's atmosphere. 
       By convention, the planets have been named after Roman gods.  In order of distance from the sun, the planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.  The first six planets were known to the ancients.  The first planet, with its rapid movement, was named after Mercury, the speedy messenger of the gods.  Venus, shining brightly as the morning or evening star, is the goddess of love.  Mars, the red planet, is the god of war.  Jupiter, the greatest of the planets, was named after the greatest of the Roman gods.  Saturn  was named after the god of the harvest.  In 1781, William Herschel made the first discovery of a planet since the ancients.  Herschel wanted to name the planet Georgium Sidus, George's Star, perhaps to curry favor with the then English king, George III.  Someone else proposed the name Herschelium.  Eventually the planet was named Uranus, for the ruler of the world.  Neptune was named for the god of the sea, and Pluto for the lord of the underworld - or was it for a mouse's dog?
       Asteroids are named by their discoverers, after people, countries, or anything else.  An asteroid discovered at Mt. Palomar was named San Diego after that near-by city installed low-pressure sodium lights for the benefit of the observatory.  The city later switched to brighter high-pressure sodium lights.  [Late reports from the dark-sky community indicate that San Diego is considering replacing their HPS streetlights with unshielded acorns!]
       A planetary nebula, like the Ring or the Dumbell, is a region of glowing gas that is left after a star exploded as a nova or supernova.  In earlier telescopes, planetary nebulae were extended objects, not point sources like the stars.  Thus, in earlier times, planetary nebulae looked more planet-like than star-like.  With better telescopes, we are able to see the structure of these objects more clearly.  Nevertheless, we continue to use the inappropriate term planetary nebula, an example of the conservatism of the astronomical community.
       Ptolemy, the ancient Greek astronomer, named 48 constellations, regions of the sky associated with mythical figures.  The mythical figures were more important than the patterns of stars in the constellations.  Indeed, few constellations look much like the figures they represent.  Asterisms, on the other hand - the Big and little Dippers, and the Teapot, for example - do resemble what they purport to represent.  And the heart of the constellation Cygnus, the Swan,  is easily seen as the Northern (or Christian) Cross.
       Because the latitude of Athens is almost as far north as that of New York, the Greeks had a lim-ited view of the southern sky.  The southern constellations were named much later by modern astronomers from about 1600 AD.  The entire sky is now completely divided into 88 nonover-lapping constellations.
       Many of the brighter stars were named by the Greeks.  For example, Sirius means scorching, an appropriate name for the brightest star in the sky.  And Graffias, meaning crab or scorpion, is located in Scorpius.  Some stars carry Roman names, such as Polaris, the pole star, and Capella, the she-goat.  Many stars were named by the Arabs, for example, Altair, Aldebaran, Alcor, and others beginning with Al.
       The German astronomer Bayer proposed a system of naming stars by a Greek letter followed by the name of a constellation, for example a Centauri, or ß Scorpii.  The Greek letters are assigned in order of the stars' brightness in each constellation - but not always.  Flamsteed, a British astronomer, assigned numbers to the stars.  Nowadays constellations are no longer used in assigning names to stars.  Nevertheless, the well established names of the brighter stars are still widely understood.

       Here are a couple of late items from the Dark-Sky List.  Connecticut now has the first state law requiring full-cutoff roadway lighting on all roads.  This means big roads, little roads, dirt roads, super highways, primary roads, secondary roads, etc.
       The New York Assembly and Senate have passed a Light Pollution Bill, now awaiting the governor's signature. This bill requires the management of outdoor lighting to conserve energy and protect the nighttime environment.  Congratulations to SELENE, a volunteer lobbying group that shepherded the bill through the legislature.
       You too can keep up with the dark sky news by subscribing to the following list.  Besides the news on legislation around the country, and the world, there is a lot of information and discussion on various lighting problems and solutions:  DarkSky-list-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
       Bernie Zelazny reports a very bright floodlight at the Highland Concrete Plant on the north side of US 90 just east of town.  The light is blinding to westbound drivers on the highway.  When you're out at night, have a look - but don't run off the road!  There is another floodlight on that property aimed northwest.  This location is outside the city limits, but we will see what can be done.  In some cases, a city can claim an area of extraterritorial jurisdiction outside its city limits and enforce some of its ordinances.
       Several new unshielded wallpacks have recently been installed on the south and east sides of the new Multipurpose Building at Sul Ross.  I have not seen these lights in operation as yet.  Last year, the director of the physical plant assured me that only full cutoff lights would be installed on this new building.  I spoke with him again when I saw these new unshielded lights.  He said the contract specified full cutoff lighting, but he later told me the contractor disagreed and would not change the lights.  The director has a meeting scheduled with the contractor for July 3.

If we have not yet received your dues, then please use the convenient envelope addressed to our treasurer that is included with this copy of your Newsletter.

Betty Lou Grimm, Treasurer
Big Bend Astronomical Society, Inc
1001 N 2nd Street, Apt F-22
Alpine, TX 79830