About us
We are a group of people in the Mid-Hudson Valley who are interested in Astronomy and Science. We hold monthly star parties at Lake Taghkanic State Park, and monthly presentations at SUNY New Paltz -- both open to the public.
Star Parties: MHAA star parties are generally held on the Friday before a new moon (with Saturday as a back-up). The dates are listed our web page about Astronomy at Lake Taghkanic State Park. You must register (here on Meetup) to attend the event, and you will need to provide your car's license plate and make and model so that we can give that info to the park police. You can see the forecast for viewing conditions on the Lake Taghkanic State Park Clear Sky Chart. If you will be attending one of our star parties it may help for you to review our MHAA Etiquette Guide.
Public Lectures: Monthly public lectures are presented on the 3rd Tuesday of every month, at 8:00 PM. Anyone who is interested can come in person to the Coykendall Science Building (CSB) Auditorium on the campus of SUNY New Paltz. (The Auditorium is right across the lobby from the Planetarium.). These events are also broadcast live on Zoom for those who wish to view remotely. To get the Zoom link you should sign up for the event here on meetup. Most presentations are recorded and later made available on our YouTube channel.
Education and Outreach: MHAA also participates in local education and outreach events. Our members are available to make presentations or arrange for public observations of the night sky or the sun, or the moon, and to help beginners learn how to get started in amateur astronomy. When the weather allows, we often set up telescopes on the Walkway Over the Hudson when they hold their Walkway At Night events.
Calendar: Club events are listed on the MHAA Google Calendar. Both our Star Parties and our Monthly Presentations are open to the public. (Our Monthly Presentations are preceded by an open club business meeting, which may be less interesting.)
YouTube: Recordings of our public presentations, some star parties, and some other activities are available on our YouTube channel.
Mailing List: If you would like to keep up with club news then you can follow us by joining our email list at mhaa.groups.io . This is a low traffic email list, and membership in MHAA is not required.
Joining MHAA: If you are interested in becoming a member of MHAA (not just following us here on Meetup or by email or Facebook) then you can use these instructions. MHAA members can borrow club telescopes or DVDs from our collection and can participate in discussions with other members on our Slack discussion channels. Annual dues are $25, which we use to support our activities, including insurance for our star parties and paying for Zoom and Meetup.
Business Meetings: There is a club Business Meeting every month just before the public presentation, at 7:30 PM, at the same location. It is also on Zoom. Anyone is welcome to attend, but it's probably mostly of interest to club members and boring for anybody else. If you join the Zoom call before 8:00 PM you may catch the end of the meeting, but be assured that we try to start the presentation promptly at the scheduled time.
Donations: Donations are always welcomed to help support the club's education and outreach activities. You can use this PayPal link or send email to treasurer@midhusonastro.org. We also accept donations of telescopes and other equipment, which we can fix up and lend to our members, or pass them on to other organizations that will make use of them.
If you have any questions, send them to questions@midhudsonastro.org
Upcoming events
5
November 2026 Star Party
Lake Taghkanic State Park, Elizaville, NY, USOur November marks star party marks the beginning of serious planetary observing, with 7 planets observable if you stay late. Enjoy the night sky away from the bright lights of the towns and cities in our area! The night will be dark - perfect for star gazing. Bring your own telescopes and binoculars or use those provided by our members. A telescope is not required.
The short day provides a fantastic range of observing options if you stick around long enough. Hercules will be setting into the sun glare just after sunset at the same time as Venus -- the brightest object in the sky -- will be making a cameo appearance low in the SW. Saturn will be bright, and nearly 40° above the horizon, readily visible to the naked eye and spectacular in some of the longer focal length telescopes. Neptune, and later Uranus, will be observable through a telescope, and Jupiter will rise in the mid-evening. If you stick around long enough, you can see Orion rise in the east, harbinger on the approaching winter. Mars will sneak over the eastern horizon around 11:30, enabling you to see all of the planets except Mercury in the one night.
Telescope operators will arrive about 30 minutes early to set up. Observing begins about an hour after sunset and will probably end around 11, or whenever club members decide. All will take place at the park's West Beach parking lot.
You must RSVP with your car's make, model, and license plate number at least one day beforehand. This info is required by and sent to the State Park authorities because we are there after park hours. If you attend without being on the list and the police show up, the consequences can include revocation of our permit for after hours use.
If you have not been to one of our star parties before then please review our guide to star party etiquette.
A forecast of the viewing conditions can be found on the Astrospheric Sky Forecast. It shows various viewing conditions (cloud cover, transparency, darkness) as well as temperature, wind, etc. If you scroll down the page you'll find additional useful info such as sunset timing, position of the planets, and more.
Note: late Fall viewing conditions can be very clear - but also quite cold. Since you will be standing around looking at the stars for a while you may feel even colder than otherwise when outdoors. Dress warmly and consider bringing extra layers in case you get colder as the night goes on.
Featured image credit: Steve Dittmar, MHAA member and Webmaster, has been learning astrophotography since 2014. Today he's also an instructor at the Adirondack Sky Center and Observatory's astrophotography workshop and teaches privately as well. He loves imaging deep sky objects and sharing views at our public star parties that make guests say, "Oh wow!".
32 attendees
Nov 2026 - Club Thanksgiving Celebration & Member Mini-Talks!
CSB Auditorium, SUNY New Paltz, New Paltz, NY, USOur annual December Christmas Celebration has been moved up to November (Thanksgiving Celebration) to make room for a very special speaker presentation in November (see details of our December Meeting SPECIAL SPEAKER EVENT by clicking here)
On Tuesday Nov 17th 2026, 8pm EDT, the MHAA will be having it's annual HOLIDAY SEASON get together. ALL are welcome to attend!
Feel free to bring cookies or snacks! (not required, just if you want to).
We will also be hosting 'member mini talks' for anyone wishing to give a 5-10 minute presentation.
This is a fun opportunity to meet, socialize and just have a good time chatting about all things astronomy! ALL are welcome!
See you there!
Image courtesy of What If Science. "What If a Turkey Hit Earth at the Speed of Light?"
Prior to the presentation MHAA will conduct a club business meeting, which will start at 7:15 PM. The talk will start at 8:00 PM, but anyone who wishes to join the business meeting is welcomed.
Participants may email Bart Hennin or call or text Tim Denman at 845-245-5483 for assistance or for further details.
6 attendees
December 2026 Star Party
Lake Taghkanic State Park, Elizaville, NY, USOur last star party of calendar year 2024 features another opportunity to see 7 planets, and the appearance of Taurus early in the evening. Enjoy the night sky away from the bright lights of the towns and cities in our area! The night will be dark - perfect for star gazing. Bring your own telescopes and binoculars or use those provided by our members. A telescope is not required.
Taurus brings us the Pleiades, one of the years most spectacular asterisms, and gorgeous viewed in all modalities from the naked eye to long focal length telescopes. Our wide-field featured image shows the nebulosity visible in telescope views, and obvious in EAA captures which live-stack astrophotograps and display them on the screen. If you arrive before sundown, you will again have the opportunity to view all of the planets except Mercury. If you hang around long enough, you will will be able to watch Orion rising.
Telescope operators will arrive about 30 minutes early to set up. Observing begins about an hour after sunset and will probably end around 11, or whenever club members decide. All will take place at the park's West Beach parking lot.
You must RSVP with your car's make, model, and license plate number at least one day beforehand. This info is required by and sent to the State Park authorities because we are there after park hours. If you attend without being on the list and the police show up, the consequences can include revocation of our permit for after hours use.
If you have not been to one of our star parties before then please review our guide to star party etiquette.
A forecast of the viewing conditions can be found on the Astrospheric Sky Forecast. It shows various viewing conditions (cloud cover, transparency, darkness) as well as temperature, wind, etc. If you scroll down the page you'll find additional useful info such as sunset timing, position of the planets, and more.
Note: Winter viewing conditions can be very clear - but also cold. Since you will be standing around looking at the stars for a while you may feel even colder than otherwise when outdoors. Dress warmly and consider bringing extra layers in case you need them as the night goes on.
Featured Image Credit: David Parmet, a recently-joined MHAA member and new to astrophotography. His new-found love for astrophotography combines his passions for photography and astronomy, both of which he's be pursuing since he was a boy.
5 attendees
Dec 2026 SPECIAL Speaker - Apollo 13 Astronaut Fred Haise!
CSB Auditorium, SUNY New Paltz, New Paltz, NY, USOn Dec 15, 2026, 8pm EDT, we have a VERY SPECIAL SPEAKER... Via Zoom from his Texas home, famed Apollo 13 astronaut Fred Haise will be our MHAA Guest Speaker of the night! This is a very SPECIAL event!
He will be giving us a 30 min talk titled 'Apollo 13 a Successful Failure' followed by a 30 min Pre-screened Q&A session (60 min total).
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO ATTEND either in person or remotely via Zoom, Please do the following...
- RSVP to this event
- IMPORTANT: **Watch these three VIDEOS **at least 1 week prior to the event to familiarize yourself with The Apollo 13 mission details.
Don't worry, it's fascinating stuff!
RE QUESTIONS for the Q&A: As mentioned, the 30 min Q&A session will feature Pre-screened questions (because of time limitations).
IF YOU would like to address a question to Mr Haise, PLEASE DO THE FOLLOWING...
- **Watch these three VIDEOS **mentioned above.
- Submit your question to myself by messaging me via Meetup (we are also collecting questions from MHAA members as well and once we have collected all submitted questions the MHAA will decide which will be selected - there will only be time for a maximum of 8 questions at most).
- If your question is one of the up to 8 selected, you must agree to appear on camera to ask it (in the event of 2 similar questions, we may have 2 people on camera together to presenting the question).
- A question about the Apollo 13 mission and/or Fred's astronaut career is preferred.
- Questions need to be brief (one sentence only with no followup questions)
- Please avoid questions that start with "What is your favorite …?"
Fred Hayes is very down to earth and answers even simple questions in considerable detail but with the number of speaking requests he gets and at 93 yrs young we want to respect his time.
All are welcome! Please attend! - I will be posting the Zoom link (for those who wish to watch remotely) in the comments below the day of the event.
Come and enjoy!
Image courtesy of NASA
Prior to the presentation MHAA will conduct a club business meeting, which will start at 7:15 PM. The talk will start at 8:00 PM, but anyone who wishes to join the business meeting is welcomed.
Participants may email Bart Hennin or call or text Tim Denman at 845-245-5483 for assistance or for further details.
14 attendees
Past events
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