• 1. Where to Stay
• 2. Where to Eat
• 3. What to Do
• 4. Insider’s Tip
• 5. An Oddball Day

The Custer Institute observatory and bags of future North Fork Potato Chips.   (Photo: From left, courtesy of the Custer Institute and North Fork Potato Chips)

There are few sights as stunning as a clear night sky in Eastern Long Island, and on Saturdays from dusk until midnight, the Custer Institute observatory—which got a brand-new galvanized-steel dome in 2006—opens its high-powered Meade telescope to the general public for free. Beforehand, though, pop over to North Fork Potato Chips all the way at the end of the Cutchogue Business Center (read big, gray warehouse). During regular business hours, owner Carol Sidor will sell you a case of 24 bags for $18—a sharable, and addictive, stargazing snack.

Published on May 9, 2007 as a web exclusive.