Author - The Durango Herald

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

Sunspots and Prominences

Greetings, stargazers. The total eclipse happened. I was lucky enough to be able to get to it and avoid the clouds, but stupid enough to spend much of the time during totality snapping photo...

DATE: Apr 15, 2024 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

Playlist for the planets

Greetings stargazers. I have an astronomy music playlist, and know I am not the only one who has one. I was recently reminded of it because I sing with the Durango Choral Society and the th...

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

Sirius lights up the night

DATE: Jan 14, 2024 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

Catadioptric telescopes for Christmas

Greetings, stargazers. I hope you are enjoying the change in weather. My December column has occasionally been used to list some things you might want to put on your astronomical observing w...

DATE: Dec 9, 2023 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

The science of exploration through photography

Greetings, stargazers. In 1995 the Hubble science team released the image of the “Pillars of Creation.” This photograph fundamentally changed the way most of us think of astrophotography. ...

DATE: Nov 11, 2023 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

Draco takes flight this time of year

Greetings stargazers. There is a dragon in our night sky. Draco is one of the circumpolar constellations that is above the northern horizon year-round, but is especially well-positioned to p...

DATE: Sep 9, 2023 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

Rockets and satellites: Some cool, others not so much

Greetings, stargazers. Besides stars, planets, galaxies, and nebulae, there are lots of other interesting things to see in the Durango sky. I am particularly thinking of some of the human-ma...

DATE: Aug 9, 2023 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

Dobsonians

Greetings, stargazers. A regular occurrence for me is being asked what kind of telescope someone should buy. My answer is always the same – the best one is the one that will get used the mos...

DATE: Jul 6, 2023 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

Looking for globular clusters

Greetings, stargazers. It seems like the only things I have seen in the evening sky recently have been clouds. Although the garden plants are happy with the rain, my dogs are unhappy about t...

DATE: Jun 10, 2023 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

Why dark skies are dark

Greetings stargazers. We are fortunate to live in one of the darker corners of the continental United States. Most of you could correctly explain this darkness is because of the absence of a...

DATE: May 14, 2023 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

Cosmology tackles big subjects

Greetings stargazers. How did we get here? Where are we going? How big and how old is the universe, and what is our place in it? These are some of the big questions that some might argue go ...

DATE: Apr 9, 2023 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies