President Bernie Zelazny opened the meeting at 7:30 PM in Room 300 Lawrence Hall on the Sul Ross Campus. There were 17 people present.
       Bernie noted that our Galileo Spacecraft has been orbiting Jupiter for 6 years. The spacecraft measures a tenfold increase in charged particles when passing between the planet and its moon Io. The spacecraft was named in honor of Galileo, who discovered the moons of Jupiter in 1609.
       Shannon Rudine gave a program on the Leonid Meteors. Shannon also reminded us to watch for the solar eclipse on Friday, December 14, about 40%, beginning at 4:08.
       At the business meeting after the program, the minutes of the November meeting were corrected as follows: In the Treasurer's Report, the Working Balance for September 29, 2001, should be $142.38 (not $142.18) and the Working Balance for October 31 should be $51.49 (not $51.29).

Treasurer Betty Grimm gave the following report at the December meeting:

       People have observed meteors and meteor showers over several millennia, but it was not until 1833 that astronomers began to understand their nature. That year, for the first time astronomers determined the precise point in the sky from which a meteor shower appeared to originate. Tracing the paths of the meteors in the prominent shower of  November, 1833, showed that the paths all appeared to emanate from a point in the constellation Leo, a point called the radiant. This meteor shower has come to be called the Leonids, after the location of its radiant in the constellation Leo. Seldom does a meteor appear to "light up" at the radiant. However, if we extend the paths of several meteors backward across the sky, the extended paths will all converge at the radiant.
       In 1837, Heinrich Olbers concluded that the Leonids had a period of 33 or 34 years. Based on records going back to ancient times, Herbert Newton, in 1863, found a period of 33.25 years; as he predicted, the Leonids reappeared in 1866, with an hourly rate of 2,000 to 5,000 meteors.
       A major event in understanding meteor showers occurred in December, 1865, and January, 1866. Ernst Tempel (in Marseilles, France) and Horace Tuttle (at Harvard Observatory, in the US) inde-pendently discovered comet Temple-Tuttle. The new comet had an orbit and a period that coin-cided with the Leonid meteor shower. The orbit is nearly fixed in space, and we pass through it every year. When we pass through the orbit close on the heels of the comet, we see the largest Leonid showers because we intercept many pieces of debris recently cast off. At other times, there are fewer particles available.
       Shannon showed several slides he took during the Leonid shower using a 35-mm camera with a 28-mm lens. The camera was mounted on his 14" Celestron, which was tracking the sky. His exposures were on the order of 12 to 15 minutes using 400-speed Eastman Slide Film. The slides were very sharp, the pin-point stars showing that the scope was very well aligned and tracking very well.
       Some of the slides showed three or four Leonids, all of which appeared dimmer than most of the stars. In taking time exposures, the stars are exposed for minutes, whereas a meteor streaks across the sky in seconds leaving a rather dim trail on film. Meteors usually look brighter to the eye than they appear on film.
       The Gemenids, appearing December 13-14, are an unusual meteor shower, originating from debris cast off by an asteroid, 3200 Phaeton. Other meteor showers, where the source has been identified, originate from comets. There is some question, however, as to whether 3200 Phaeton may in fact be a dead comet. Further complicating the issue, we tend to think of asteroids as hard little nuggets of rock and metal, but some have been called flying gravel banks. Some asteroids are little more than piles of rubble. No doubt, we will eventually learn more about the source of the Geminids.
       Meteors fall onto the moon as well as the earth. An object weighing 10 kilograms (about 22 pounds) creates a 15-foot crater on the moon.  We can see the flash that such an object makes, but we cannot see the crater from the earth.
       Shannon prepared an excellent handout on the Leonid and Gemenid Showers, which I hope you will save for future reference. Remember, we will see these showers again and again!

       (New York Times, Albany, December 22, 2001) Seldom in this capital of compromises can a fight over a bill be called a battle between darkness and light, but that describes the struggle over a bill passed this year that was intended to let more New Yorkers see the stars. The forces of light, led by Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and other mayors across the state, are trying to stop the legislation, which would foster more darkness for stargazers, who want unobstructed night skies.
       The bill passed both houses of the Legislature in June with little fanfare or debate. The measure would require the state and local governments to gradually replace streetlights and other outdoor lights with ones that focus light downward rather than spraying it out to the heavens. It would also make it illegal to erect lights that bother neighbors and would direct the state to designate darkness preserves where outdoor lighting would be restricted. 
       But Gov. George E. Pataki, who prides himself on his environmental record, has not been keen on the bill, in part because it would cost the state millions of dollars to carry out, his aides said. For six months, he has kept the legislation at bay by threatening to veto it if it is sent to him in its current form.
       "I appreciate the goal of the bill. In fact my brother is an astronomer, so I mean he's got to be in favor of it," the governor said this week during a radio interview. "And I remember going with him many a time and looking out in a telescope and trying to find the darkest part of the sky. 
       "In concept," he said, "the idea of taking measures to make our energy use lower when it's unnecessary and to help neighbors from being blinded in the middle of the night is something that I would like to support." But, he added, he did not know whether he would sign the bill, because he had not read all the provisions. 
       Mayor Giuliani and others have argued that the measure would not only cost hundreds of millions dollars for new lights but would also jeopardize the safety of urban residents, since cities could no longer light up high-crime areas as they see fit, without the state's approval.
       But astronomers, environmentalists and groups like the International Dark-Sky Association argue that the dome of glaring light over cities and towns is a form of pollution. They argue that the current lighting systems keep people from seeing the stars, disrupt the rhythms of wildlife and waste millions of dollars on light projected upward. If Mr. Pataki were to sign the bill, New York would become the seventh state in the nation to enact a light-pollution law. 
       In a letter to Mr. Pataki, Mr. Giuliani said replacing the city's 180,000 streetlights with fixtures that focus downward, known as full cut-off lights, would create patches of dark on the roadways. 
The city would have to double the number of streetlights, Mr. Giuliani wrote, to keep the lighting even, at a cost he estimated at $700 million. [The mayor is wrong here, of course.]
       "We are still working with the sponsors to remedy some of the concerns," said Suzanne Morris, a spokeswoman for the governor. "It's too soon to say what's going to happen." Senator Balboni, a Long Island Republican who sponsored the bill in the Senate, said he still hopes to reach a com-promise with the governor. He said many of the governor's and mayors' worries about the cost of new lights were shortsighted. "Most of these places would save money," he said.

       I recently had a good visit with the local manager of the West Texas Food Bank and with their maintenance man. They are located at the intersection of Hwy 90 West and the Sunny Glen Road. Their building is inside the city limits; they have been there about 3 years. The outdoor lighting was already installed when they moved in, so the lights are grandfathered under the Al-pine Ordinance.
       There is a very bright 400W wallpack out front, another on the east side of the building, and also a much smaller wall light on that side. The bulb in the front wallpack burned out a while back and was eventually replaced, so maybe that's why we've just noticed this wallpack.
       They were sympathetic to the needs of McDonald Observatory, to reducing glare, and to the possibility of shielding their lights. In fact, their maintenance man has recently done a lot of earth moving at McDonald in connection with laying water lines. He knows people up there, and seems amenable to doing something about the Food Bank's wallpacks.
       We will explore what can be done. At this point, I'm guardedly optimistic.