Custer Institute

6 pm

CUSTER HONEY BEE CLUB MEET.

Learn about honeybees, beekeeping and meet some of your local, friendly beekeepers at this informal meeting!

Custer's Honey Bee Club is an educational program offered at Custer Institute designed to support environmental sustainability and to inspire environmental stewardship, specifically as it relates to honeybees. The group is made up of enthusiastic beekeepers and bee lovers who get together periodically to share their honeybee experiences and learn from each other about how to keep bees, sustainable bee practices and hive management. At these informal meetings, you will have a chance to meet and mingle with beekeepers of all levels, from the novice beekeeper to the professional. Custer Institute has a community bee yard and other facilities that allows for hands-on collaborative learning and demonstrations and which is surrounded by a beautiful arboretum. Not yet a beekeeper, but want to learn what beekeeping is all about? Are you a backyard beekeeper looking for other backyard beekeepers? Or a professional beekeeper interested in getting involved with the growing North Fork beekeeping movement? Come join us!

FREE to attend. We urge you to register in advance as this will guide our preparations and plans for the meeting.

4:30 pm

ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING & BBQ

Join us and meet other members of Custer Institute & Observatory at our annual membership meeting and Board elections. This meeting will be held in-person and will be followed by an outdoor BBQ and stargazing. This is a free, members-only event.

Regular members of the Institute in good standing are eligible to vote in the elections of the Board.

We hope to see you there!
Please register in advance to help guide our preparations for the meeting.

Registration/Ticket Portal is here:

9:00pm

EXPLORING AND NAVIGATING THE SUMMER NIGHT SKY

Gazing up at a star-filled night sky is awesome and humbling. To the novice stargazer, it can be overwhelming and disorienting. Throughout history, the night sky has served many functions to humanity- a clock, a calendar, a compass, a map and even a story book. Join stargazing lecturer Randall DiGiuseppe of the Custer Institute & Observatory for an evening of learning the basics of navigating the night sky as well as learning the locations and the folklore behind the most prominent constellations of summer.

Learn how to spot the North Star, the Summer Triangle, the Milky Way Galaxy, and the stories behind summer’s most well-known constellations. Learn also how to find your way around the night sky and how to use it to orient yourself on the ground.

This event is open to everyone. Just bring an inquisitive mind, a blanket and your imagination.

Randall DiGiuseppe is a professional artist, lecturer, telescope builder and amateur astronomer for over four decades. He is a lifetime member of the Custer Institute and Observatory and recipient of the Astronomical League’s Messier Award. He conducts lectures on the dynamics, history and art of the night sky throughout the country.

Following the presentation, Observatory staff will provide guided tours of the night sky (weather permitting) through the many telescopes on site, including the apochromatic Zerochromat telescope in our historic observation dome.

$5 Adult, $3 Children Under 16, Observatory Member FREE. Your donations make it possible to offer programs like these and are greatly appreciated. Due to limited space, registration is strongly encouraged.

A rain date for this outdoor program is scheduled for July 22 at 9:00pm. Please bring a blanket or chair to enjoy the presentation.

Registration/Ticket Portal is here:

4:30 pm

Custer Board Meeting.

8:30pm

GENE CASEY AND THE LONE SHARKS AT CUSTER OBSERVATORY

Join us for a live outdoor concert under the stars with Gene Casey and the Lone Sharks!

A local legend with a self-described “rough-hewn and honest” style, Casey helped develop the North Fork music scene before one existed and has developed a reputation for his fun, upbeat performances that bring the crowd to their feet (The Sound of the North Fork, Northforker June2019).

Gene’s original music met with great acclaim and received significant local and international radio play. Several of his roots-drenched songs have been used in “A Prairie Home Companion” and on the soundtracks to television and feature films, including “Justified” and “Sons of Anarchy”, the 2012 thriller “The Tall Man” starring Jessica Biel, the 2013 release “The Killing Season” starring Robert DeNiro, and Rob Reiner’s “Being Charlie.”

In 2015, Gene, “the premier barroom troubadour of Eastern Long Island” (Josh Alan Friedman) received the Long Island Sound Award by the L.I. Music Hall of Fame, “for contributions to the Island’s musical landscape.”

Following the concert, Observatory staff will provide guided tours of the night sky (weather permitting) through our many telescopes on site, including the apochromatic Zerochromat telescope in our historic observation dome.

Please bring a blanket or chair to enjoy this outdoor presentation.

$20 Adult, $15 Observatory Member, Children Under 16 FREE. Attendance will be limited so advanced registration is strongly encouraged. A rain date for this program is scheduled for July 29 at 8:30pm.

A rain date for this outdoor program is scheduled for July 22 at 9:00pm. Please bring a blanket or chair to enjoy the presentation.

Registration/Ticket Portal is here: