Join MHAA

Become a Member of MHAA or Renew your Membership

Membership dues are $25 per year (plus a transaction fee if you pay online). Membership renewals are due one year from the last time you paid dues.

Students can join MHAA for free. To find out more about student memberships see this page.

It’s also possible to become a Lifetime member, for a one-time payment of $250.

If you don’t want to become a full member of MHAA you can still get notifications about our public events by creating an account on Meetup.com and subscribing to us there at https://www.meetup.com/mhastro/ .

What do YOU get as a member of MHAA?

In addition to a warm fuzzy feeling for supporting the club, members receive the following benefits:

  • Members can borrow club telescopes, imagers, and other equipment. This is a great way to learn more about telescopes in general and the features and quirks of particular devices, especially if you are thinking of buying your own.
  • Members can participate in our online Slack workspace (chat group) at midhudsonastro.slack.com
  • Members can make use of our Star Gazing permit at Lake Taghkanic State Park to be in the park after normal hours. (Other locations may become available to members in the future.)
  • Members can get access to the Astro Society Edition of Astrospheric, which has more features then the standard public version of Astrosphric.
  • Members can participate in annual club events, like our Summer Picnic and Members’ Dinner.
  • Members can borrow from our DVD collection.

How does your membership support MHAA?

Member dues support the overall mission of the club to provide astronomy education and outreach to our local community. They enable us to afford:

  • the insurance required for some of our events
  • to pay some of our speakers for their presentations at our monthly meetings
  • club equipment maintenance (telescopes, tripods, and imagers)
  • prizes we donate to local science fairs
  • a Meetup.com account for event publicity and coordination
  • a Zoom Pro account for virtual meetings
  • a Google gSuite account for managing club business
  • publicity fees to advertise the club or club events

Paying membership dues:

  • On-Line: Pay $25 (plus $1 fee) through PayPal
  • In Person: Bring cash or a check for $25 (made out to MHAA) to one of our monthly star parties or monthly meetings and hand it to one of the MHAA officers.
  • By Mail: Send a check for $25 (made out to MHAA) to the Treasurer at:

Mid-Hudson Astronomical Association
Eric Myers, Treasurer
14 Spy Hill
Poughkeepsie, NY 12603

If you would like to join as a Lifetime member then contact treasurer@midhudsonastro.org .

If you would like to join as a Student member then see this page.

New Members – Send us your Contact Information

If you join online with the link above, part of the process will result in you entering your contact information and the creation of an account for you on our website. Easy.

If you pay by cash or check or some other means, then we need your contact information (mainly your email address, but back up contact info is good too) so that we can create an account for you on the website. You can either:

  1.  Fill out this on-line form, or
  2.  Print and mail or email this membership form

Once you have an account on our website you can provide your car license plate, make, and model for when we create the Star Party attendance lists (as is required by the State Police), or if you prefer you can choose to provide your car details each time you RSVP through Meetup. We promise not to share any of your info with anyone else without your permission.

Any Questions?

If you have any questions about joining MHAA you can send them to membership@midhudsonastro.org .

Thank you for supporting MHAA!