[Editor's Note: This fascinating image below from the Astronomical Picture of the Day website (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html) was taken by HST using its new wide-field camera ...

According to an unnamed professional astronomer, this was the result of an 11,000 mph collision between two asteroids that shattered at least one of them, causing the comet-like trail of debris. I disagree with that interpretation on the basis of simple celestial mechanics. These were both main belt asteroids, and unless one of them was a rogue just happening to pass through the main belt, that relative velocity just seems to high for my tastes. I believe this collision involved at least one asteroid that was "fluffy" in terms of Br. Consolmagno's theory. I would not be surprised to see this image in his presentation.]

VP Jim Renn worked long and hard to schedule a visit by Br. Consolmagno, a process that has been ongoing for more than a year. Thanks Jim! The good Brother travels extensively outside the US, and is tough to pin down for a presentation. You won't want to miss this one. We're publicizing it more than most meetings, and there could be a crowd. So arrive early for good seats. Doors will open at 6 pm.

After calling the meeting to order via the traditional collision between an asteroid and a target disc of aluminum, Dan recognized our newest member, Diann Smith, and 2 unnamed guests [Dan apologizes for not getting their names], he explained how membership gets you The Reflector, the quarterly newsletter of the Astronomical League. He had some sample back issues he always retains for just such purposes, and presented them as "welcome" tokens.

No, he's not blessing the audience, though it might appear that way. Dan was explaining his participation this last year with MAG (Maricopa Association of Governments) in the development of a model light pollution ordinance. And he'll clue you all in on what he learned about those new LED animated billboards (like the one they installed this summer at the Anthem Outlet Mall just off I-17).

Speaking of which, here's one of the slides from his presentation. It shows the newest threat to dark skies ... electronic billboards. They're officially known as CVEMS (Continuously Variable Electronic Message Sign) or EMD (Electronic Message Display). This is one recently installed at the Anthem Outlet Mall. Some quick specs: 60 ft tall, two-sided, 12 ft x 40 ft HD LED display, 8 kW (if all white), $300,000 cost, 8 second rotation of messages. Of course, it's unshielded, and unlike conventional billboards cannot be lit from above with the usual shielded lamps ... it emits it's own light, much of it above the horizontal.

This is how it looks at night from Heimhenge, 5 miles to the northeast. It's the brightest light now visible from that location. And according to Maricopa Planning & Zoning, greatly exceeds their recommended night-time brightness levels. The display part of the sign goes black at 11 pm or midnight (seems to vary) and comes back on at 5 am or 6 am (seems to vary). Unfortunately, the sign is located within the City of Phoenix, which is free to ignore County restrictions. And when it does go off, it's just the display part. All the other lights remain on, and it's still quite bright. And unshielded. Dan is conducting an ongoing effort to learn more, and attempting to influence the Phoenix Office of Environmental Programs and the Planning & Development Department.

We had a good turnout for this lecture, considering many had seen parts of it in the past. But there's always updates, and things you really need to understand to help fight the spread of light pollution. We had 10 members in attendance, and 2 guests.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:30 pm, and rather than heading to Legends as usual (which is still closed from that transformer explosion), about 6 of us headed over to Taste of New York. It's a little farther down the road, near the I-17 interchange, but Scott assured us they had decent food and a fine selection of beers. Indeed they did.

Item 2. DFAC member Scott Roher has suggested we utilize our mutual contact with Tony Gutowski to arrange a public outreach event at the Pioneer Living History Museum. Tony is a member of NRDHCA (New River Desert Hills Community Association), where I have spoken several times. He also happens to be a Board member at the Museum. It's between Anthem and Tramonto just west of I-17, so it's not really a "dark-sky" site, but they can control their own lighting, and have both electricity and restrooms available. Tony and Scott spoke about a possible "Astronomy Night" at the Museum, and it looks to be a win-win scenario. And Tony has a personal interest in astronomy. I have made contact with the Museum, and planning is underway. We'd probably need at least 6 scopes to handle the crowd. Whether this would be a ticket event (with DFAC getting a cut), or an open event (where we could still set up our donation box) is yet to be determined. Likewise the date of the event. The Museum has been going through some legal hurdles of late, and has just recently recovered their leased property via an eminent domain action by the City of Phoenix. So communications have been intermittent, but we're still working on this and will keep you all posted.

Item 3. We have an opportunity to do a "field trip" in southeastern Utah with Wild River Expeditions. If you were at the September meeting, you heard the sales pitch I presented. If you missed it, and might be interested, you can download the file WRE.pps on our Downloads page. It's a self-playing PowerPoint slide show, so you don't need to have PowerPoint to view it. It's fairly self-explanatory, even without my narration. Bottom line is we'll have a professional archeologist and geologist onboard to educate us on those topics, and I will fill the roll of astronomer for education at night. I'm hoping by then to have replaced my trusty 10x80 binocs with a pair of these babies: http://www.bigbinoculars.com/100bt45.htm. Carpooling for the 7-hour drive to Bluff, Utah would be required. Dates are yet to be determined, but would be one of those listed in the slide show. I'll be pitching this to the other astronomy clubs as well. If you are interested, let me know and I'll add you to my list. If we can round up the requisite 10-20 people we'll have all systems go. You know how to reach me. It might be possible to jump in late, but the sooner you let me know, the more likely this will happen. I already have 2 interested just from DFAC.

Item 4. Bad news ... the online version of my weekly Sky Lights column in the online Foothills Focus newspaper is no more. It ran for 22 weeks. To make a long story short, they were simply impossible to work with, didn't seem to really care whether it ran or not, and were unlikely to ever be willing to actually pay for it. So where from here? In&Out of Anthem has been unresponsive to my queries, and I don't like the political slant of the Sonoran News. That leaves me with two alternatives. Either solicit other AZ newspapers that have an online presence, or do Sky Lights as a blog. The two are mutually exclusive, since a newspaper needs the ad revenue, and would control what ads are on the side borders of the Sky Lights page. And then there's the complication of exclusivity, and what constitutes each newspaper's "exclusive area." On the other hand, going the blog route, even if I do everything right, might require 2-3 years to build enough traffic (= page hits = $) to yield a return. When the traffic gets high enough, I can approach companies I select for the ads, and you can expect those would all be astronomy, environment, or education related. So I'm back to planning mode now, and Sky Lights is once again on "sabbatical." I'll keep you posted on developments.

Thanks for reading Quid Novi. If you have feedback, you know where to reach me. Until next we meet, clear skies!

— G.K. Chesterton, Author, Philosopher, Poet (1874-1936)