DELAWARE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY (DAS)

The Delaware Astronomical Society is a non-profit corporation of the state of Delaware and is affiliated with the Astronomical League - a national organization of amateur astronomers. It is strictly a volunteer amateur organization. All meetings are open to the public and interested persons are encouraged to attend. Meetings are generally held at 8:00 p.m. on the third Tuesday of the month from September through June at Mount Cuba Astronomical Observatory (MCAO), located off Hillside Mill Road in Greenville, Delaware. Click here for ZOOMABLE maps to find MCAO. We encourage active participation of our membership, with regular meetings often given by our members describing their exploits in astronomy. Special events may be scheduled throughout the year, that augment or replace regular meetings. These events include field trips throughout the region, sky shows and dinner meetings with invited speakers. All club members receive two informative newsletters. The Focus is the monthly newsletter of the Delaware Astronomical Society that describes the club's activities. The Reflector is the newsletter of the Astronomical League.

Other Benefits of membership include:

• The opportunity to borrow one of our high quality loaner telescopes: a 6" or a 17.5" Dobsonian, or a C8 SCT
• Personal use of the club's permanently mounted 12.5" reflecting telescope (after you've passed a performance test on its use)
• On each CLEAR SKY Friday night after 7pm, the Sawin Observatory (the building at MCAO with the neat roll-back roof and housing the 12.5" reflector) can be open by advance reservation to members and guests for viewing; for reservations contact DAS member Bill Hanagan (302-239-0949) who also supervises the viewing sessions (but some weeks Tom Sidowski (302-239-1844) supervises).
• The opportunity to attend regularly organized DAS Star Parties
• Access to the club's library
• Discounts on many astronomical publications, including
• Sky & Telescope magazine - one of the best magazines devoted to amateur astronomy and
• Astronomy - also an excellent magazine for the amateur astronomer.
• There are two annual DAS awards, one, Astronomer of the Year, for a member making special contributions, and the Luther J. Porter Educator Award, which needn't be restricted to members.