The DARK SKY OBSERVERS astronomy club was formed in 1991. Our club's main goal is to get out under a dark sky and enjoy the heavens. With optimal observing nights at a premium, we don't wish to waste our observing time with meetings, bylaws, and constitutions. Astronomy is our hobby, its not supposed to be like work! Therefore, we strive to keep our club as informal as possible. We have no officers, bylaws, or formal business meetings. What we do have is a very good dark sky observing site at a State park in northern N.J., and a core group of avid amateurs whose main interest is observing. Club dues are collected at the beginning of each year to defray the cost of the permit and the insurance that we must maintain to use our dark sky site. Dues are used only for this purpose. The dues vary from year to year depending on the amount of members in the club who split up the cost of the permit and insurance. They usually run between 25 - $30. We schedule nights at the observing site on clear weekends.
Several of our members have their own telescopes, (one a homebuilt 14.25") but you don't have to own a scope to join our club. We welcome beginners, and help them get started in amateur astronomy. On a typical weekend observing night, several members will have scopes set up. They will find different objects and then walk around looking at what everyone else has found. We also have several members who are involved in astrophotography with both film and CCD's if that is your interest.
The DSO at our dark sky observing site.