In 2000 we received 13 applications. Awards by our Grants Committee totaling $18,489 were as follows (principal investigator indicated in parentheses):

1. Big Bear Solar Observatory, New Jersey Institute of Technology (John R. Varsik). $2,457 to purchase external discs for the Internet server which will provide data storage space for daily data and images, space weather forecasts and solar activity warnings. These daily data are available to all Internet visitors and support NASA space missions as well as remote astronomers.

2. Monterey Institute for Research in Astronomy (Wm. Bruce Weaver). $2,983.15 to purchase site licenses for five copies of MIRA Pro software to assist in the reduction of data obtained with new instrumentation of the 36-inch telescope at the Oliver Observing Station. Initial research to be supported includes monitoring of light variations in a number of gravitational lenses, photometry and spectrophotometry of pre-main-sequence stars in the Sigma Orionis cluster discovered at MIRA, and the application of artificial neural networks to the automatic classification of binary stars.

3. Rochester Institute of Technology (Elliott Horch). $2,502 to purchase a Linux computer and three matched DVD-RAM drives to serve as a new data archiving and reduction system for speckle observations of binary stars at the Wisconsin-Indiana-Yale-NOAO (WIYN) 3.5-m Telescope at Kitt Peak, Arizona. The F.A.R. gratefully acknowledges the donation by the Institute for Space Observations of the funds for this grant.

4. Planetary Science Institute (Carol L. Nessee). $1,960 to upgrade a semi-automated telescope and CCD system telescope system for use in a comet discovery program. The upgrade will include a small weatherproof enclosure, electric focuser, zip drive for data transfer, new telescope automation software, a filter wheel and filters for detection of cometary emission . Initially, this upgrade will support a search for Kreutz sungrazer comets before they reach perihelion.

5. White Dwarf Research Corporation (Donald E. Winget). $2,812 to purchase four 600 MHz Pentium III computers. This hardware will provide a 40 percent increase in speed, thereby supporting the computer time needed for computation of genetic algorithms, as well as allow for future additions and upgrades.

6. Appalachian State University (Daniel B. Caton). $3,275 to purchase a 24-inch Beyers precision worm/wheel gear and bearing assembly for an 18-inch telescope at Dark Sky Observatory. These monies will complement and support funds provided by the Appalachian State University, the National Science Foundation and the American Astronomical Society in upgrading the telescope to allow more reliable tracking and guiding.

7. The American Association of Variable Star Observers (Janet A. Mattei). $2,500 to publish all of the AAVSO variable star finder charts on a compact disk (CD). This CD will act as a second version of AAVSO charts available on CD and will extend the publication to include new and revised charts, as well as additional special AAVSO observing program charts not included in the first version. Charts represented on the updated CD will enable variable star observers, comprised of both amateur and professional astronomers, worldwide to obtain immediate access to all AAVSO charts.