I’m going to be the featured speaker at the Annual Cookout meeting of the Amateur Astronomical Society of Rhode Island (known as the Skyscrapers) on July 10th at 4:00pm. The title of my talk, “Fame, Fortune and Discoveries in the Occult” is a play on the ‘other’ meaning of occult, but since I’m an astronomer I think we can all agree that I’m not going to be casting any spells that day.

Here’s the blip on the talk from the Skyscrapers website.

“Many opportunities exist for amateur astronomers to make contributions to scientific research. My interest is in helping to classify asteroids and Kuiper Belt Objects for the scientists at MIT and Williams College, and also to report my observations through a worldwide network called the International Occultation Timing Association. One of the better ways to gather data on these distant objects is by recording the light curves of certain stars as the asteroids eclipse or occult them. It only takes simple, inexpensive equipment to get started, and from there you can take it across the world, as I’ve been able to do.”

“Bruce Berger has lectured on amateur astronomy, occultations and telescope making across the US, South America and Asia. His passion for astronomy and astronomy gadgets fuels his desire to learn more and to share his experiences with others through his Scopemaker.com website. As a long-time member and past president of the Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston, Bruce has promoted professional-amateur collaboration projects with scientists at the MIT-Williams College Occultation Consortium and the San Pedro Martir National Observatory of Mexico. Along with John Briggs and several others, Bruce is a co-author of a just published (6/17/10) article in Nature titled “A Glimpse of an Icy World in the Outer Solar System” He has given talks about amateur astronomy and telescope making to groups in Brazil, Japan and China.”