Thanks, Mike. I know about them and their discussion groups. It's still nice to have some local hands on contact. You can only do so much over the internet. - Kurt

Hi Kurt, I figured you'd find some people around (most likely those with permanent setups) who'd be interested. Seems to me that AAVSO would have so reasonable guidelines for getting started. Glad you already knew about them. Some of their "semipro" things where they team up professionals with amateurs might provide some tie-ins with the growing astronomy program at the U.