Welcome to the Custer Institute & Observatory

Long Island's oldest public observatory (est. 1927)

For the Curious

The Custer Institute and Observatory is Long Island's oldest public observatory (est.1927). Open to the public every Saturday evening from dusk until midnight, our staff of volunteers will give you a tour of the facilities and the night sky through our powerful telescopes. Custer has a library, museum, and gift shop. Frequent lectures, classes,concerts, art exhibits and other special events.


Custer Links

News, shopping, & Resources

Your online destination for more news & articles on planets, cosmology, NASA, space missions, than you can shake a stick at!

Astro News
NASA News
BBC Space News
ScienceDaily: Astronomy News
Universe Today
Space.com
The Large Hadron Collider

Government Sites
NASA TV
NASA
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
European Space Agency
Russian Space Agency (click Translate)

Private Launch Companies
SpaceX
Blue Origin
United Launch Alliance
Sierra Nevada Corporation
Stratolaunch Systems
Orbital Sciences
European Space Agency
Russian Space Agency (click Translate)

What's up?

Table of meteor showers
Spaceweather.com
Heavens-Above
This Week's Sky
Night Sky This Month
Astronomy Topic Of The Day

Astronomy Software
Stellarium
Cartes du Ciel (aka Skychart)
Computer Aided Astronomy (aka C2A)
Home Planet
Celestia
Orbiter: space flight simulator
PixInsight: Image Processing
DeepSkyStacker

Star Charts

Skymaps.com
Telrad Charts
Messier Checklist and Charts
Orion Telescopes Star Chart
Moon Maps!

General Astronomy
Bad Astronomy
The Nine Planets
One-Minute Astronomer
The Budget Astronomer

Beginner's Corner

Free Backyard Astronomy Mini-course
Video: Choose A Telescope
So You Wanna Buy a Telescope...
An Eyepiece Primer (A. Nagler)
Star Party Etiquette
Before You Buy a Telescope...
A Guide to Binoculars
Observing the Moon
Orion Video Guides
Video: Intro to Astrophotography

Astronomy Retail
Orion Telescopes
Celestron
Meade
Obsession Telescopes
Discovery Telescopes
Tele Vue Optics
Camera Concepts
University Optics
Explore Scientific

Collimation & D.I.Y.
Collimation Explained
Collimation: Newtonian Reflector
Video: Newtonian Collimation
Video1: Schmidt-Cassegrain Collimation
Video2: Schmidt-Cassegrain Collimation

Home Built Astronomy Projects
Sky & Tel: DIY
Ici In Space: DIY (lots!)
DIY Astrophotography