Ms. Adelman (who employed Ms. Brittain until last year) is known for chandeliers with handblown glass volumes projecting from spare, branchlike arms, as well as her You Make It series of DIY light fixtures built from off-the-shelf parts.
What finally relegated your correspondent's Leica to the top shelf wasn't having to carry a separate light-meter all the time, but a pair of scissors as well.
He realised that some of the off-the-shelf equipment used by serious amateurs is sensitive enough to measure the light drop caused by distant transits.