Southern Maine Astronomers
Membership Benefits
Star Parties
The club hosts public star parties as part of its astronomy education outreach efforts at our club headquarters in Brunswick, and elsewhere throughout our club footprint as may be arranged. These typically run from March through November. These are great opportunities for educating the general public about astronomy and for members to meet and share information with each other about equipment, general advice and the like, enabling the wonderful camaraderie that exists within the club. Neptune Drive events are rain or shine, with the club using its indoor facilities for talks and equipment demos in the event of inclement weather.
Equipment Lending Program
The Club’s equipment lending program allows members to check out the club’s equipment for use at home for up to a month. The club has an array of Celestron SCT’s and a Meade ETX125. Don’t have a scope, or just want to try one out? Take advantage of our members only equipment lending program.
The Astronomical League (AL)
The AL is a confederation of about 300 astronomy clubs across the United States comprising more than 20,000 members. The AL produces a quarterly magazine, the Reflector, that you can receive in hard copy or digitally for free as a member. You can also join in over 60 observing programs offered by the League that are great ways to learn about the night sky!
Click here to visit the AL website
Membership Benefits
NASA Night Sky Network (NSN)
About Night Sky Network (NSN)
NSN promotes and aids outreach by clubs like SMA in concert with NASA, the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific to educate participants about astronomy and in particular, NASA missions. Click Here for more information.
NSN Member Benefits
An SMA membership includes NSN registration. Through the NSN, members can receive discounted subscriptions of Astronomy and Sky & Telescope magazines. NSN also has monthly educational pieces and a "What’s Up” monthly video highlighting things to observe in the night sky in the coming month.
*Members can opt-out of NSN registration
Membership Benefits
Google Groups
While our Google Groups page is open to everyone, an SMA membership comes with automatic enrollment. We strongly encourage your participation in our Google Groups forum as it provides the most effective way for club members to share information, images and other postings within the club. You can leave this forum or specify how often you receive emails by going to Manage My Membership Settings for Southern Maine Astronomers (google.com) or by letting us know.
Dark Sky Advocacy
The club is a member of the International Dark Sky Association and Dark Sky Maine and supports all efforts to educate about and to control light pollution in our communities. We regularly advocate at star parties, participate in other educational efforts and comment in our communities regarding impending decisions on zoning changes, streetlight conversions and the like. Your support will impact the preservation of dark skies in Maine!
Click Here to learn more
Website Benefits
Membership will give you access to Members Only information that includes the club’s bylaws, video replays of presentations and meetings, minutes of directors meetings and committee information.
