Comment Get a subscription to Sky and Telescope magazine. (Score 3, Informative) 234
Start reading it. They go through the basics and have articles on how amateurs can contribute to research.
But you really need to limit your expectations. Observational astronomy (even amateur-style) requires several hours of daytime prep work, followed by 1-2 hours of equipment setup and familiarization, before you even embark in a 3-4 hour observation run. After an observing run, you might have another 2-10 hours of data processing to do.
If you have a wife, two kids, and a day job, you will get pretty tired pretty quick.
Good equipment (solid mount, high quality telescope, imaging system, star stracker) is not cheap either and, sadly, most people need to invest in or borrow good equipment before they can really evaluate if they like it or if they want to stick with it.