Author - The Durango Herald

Temperature, energy and the light spectrum

Greetings, stargazers. Spring is galaxy season for many amateur astronomers. However, when looking through an eyepiece instead of a camera for astrophotography, you might think of this as th...

DATE: Apr 11, 2025 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

Charles Hakes: Practicing astronomy in the time shift

Greetings, stargazers. Today we can all say a fond farewell to Mountain Standard Time while we spend at least the next few months living in the Central Standard Time zone. Or at least that i...

DATE: Mar 9, 2025 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

Why stars twinkle

Greetings, stargazers. There have been many clear, dark nights recently. I hesitate to say this, but right now I think a little more light might be good for the region. But the only extra li...

DATE: Feb 7, 2025 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

Taurus the bull and Orion the hunter

Greetings, stargazers. A prominent winter constellation is Taurus, the bull. It is particularly easy to find this month, because Jupiter is right in the middle of it. At magnitude -2.68, Jup...

DATE: Jan 10, 2025 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

What’s on your stargazing wishlist

Greetings, stargazers. This is the time of year to get your astronomer holiday wish list in order and make predictions for the new year. I was surprised to look through my previous columns a...

DATE: Dec 6, 2024 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

Comets are enjoying some extra attention

Greetings stargazers. This has been an eventful month. From my backyard I got to see an aurora and a comet with my naked eyes. Yes, the camera showed both of those much more clearly, but it ...

DATE: Nov 8, 2024 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

Examining the winged horse, Pegasus

Greetings, stargazers. Our extra wet end of summer has given way to an extra dry stretch of weather for the leaf changing season. Maybe we will get some good viewing in. Fall’s evening sky i...

DATE: Oct 11, 2024 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

A tilted axis is the reason for earth’s seasons

Greetings, stargazers. The most interesting thing in the sky for me last month was seeing the most intense hailstorm with the largest hail I have seen since moving to Durango over twenty-fiv...

DATE: Sep 6, 2024 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

How will our sun end?

Greetings stargazers. Happy monsoons. Even if I haven’t seen many stars in the past week, at least the plants in the garden have been happy. In about five billion years or so, our sun will ...

DATE: Aug 12, 2024 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

Learning about the Milky Way

Greetings, stargazers. The Milky Way is a barred-spiral galaxy about 100,000 light years in diameter, but only about 1,000 light years thick. It contains more than 100 billion stars, and som...

DATE: Jul 19, 2024 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

Boötes tills the skies

Greetings, stargazers. The very bright star near zenith at dusk is Arcturus. It is the fourth brightest star in the night sky, and a very tiny bit brighter than Vega, which can be seen risin...

DATE: Jun 9, 2024 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

Drinking from the Big Dipper

Greetings, stargazers. The Big Dipper is one of the most recognizable asterisms in the night sky. However, it is only a part of the constellation Ursa Major, which is one of the largest. As ...

DATE: May 12, 2024 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies