[Discuss] astronomy suggestions?

[bogstad at pobox.com (Bill Bogstad)]

On Sun, Jul 15, 2012 at 5:31 PM, Eric Chadbourne
<eric.chadbourne at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I'm looking for a new hobby and astronomy looks perfect.  Low entry
> barrier, amateurs can actually assist real scientists and it's
> fascinating.  I just downloaded stellarium and omg is it excellent.
> Works great on my terribly under powered laptop with an amd c-50 cpu.
> Any astronomy geeks on the list?  If yes what software do you like?
> Any local groups you suggest?

I attended one of the monthly meetings of the Amateur Telescope Makers
of Boston, Inc. (ATMoB)
http://www.atmob.org/ about a year ago and they might be of interest
to you.    Seemed like lots of people who grind their own mirrors,
etc.

You might also try the monthly public observatory nights at the
Harvard Center for Astrophysics:
http://sao-www.harvard.edu/events/mon.html   I haven't yet been to one
of their meetings, but I'm sure you could make some contacts there.

Unfortunately, both these groups apparently shutdown for the month of August.

Another possibility is the Museum of Science in Cambridge.   They do
observations Friday nights March through November.
http://www.mos.org/events_activities/events&d=1212

Have fun,
Bill Bogstad