Author - The Durango Herald

Ursa Major: Get to know the ‘Great Bear’ this summer

Greetings, stargazers. Summer doesn’t begin for another month, but with the Fort Lewis College semester over and the Animas River flow rate increasing, it is hard not to think o...

DATE: May 11, 2016 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

Find Jupiter, then leap into Leo the Lion

Greetings, stargazers. Spring is traditionally the season for galaxies, but this spring you can add planets to the list of targets. Jupiter dominates the early evening southern ...

DATE: Apr 13, 2016 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

Inside Gemini you’ll find rich field of stars

Greetings, stargazers. To be consistent with my previous March columns, you will have to hear me complain about daylight saving time. Consider it done, so let’s move on. ...

DATE: Mar 9, 2016 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

Give overlooked Auriga a little loving attention

Greetings, stargazers. An unappreciated constellation that is now at the early evening zenith is Auriga. I say unappreciated, not only because it does not get the name recogniti...

DATE: Feb 10, 2016 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

Astronomers record time in a peculiar way

Greetings, stargazers. In the last couple of weeks, most of us have done more snow shoveling than sky watching, but I hope that hasn’t kept you from having a happy new year so f...

DATE: Jan 13, 2016 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

Right eyepiece can enhance night sky views

Greetings, stargazers. This is the season that a lucky few of you may be receiving new astronomy toys, such as binoculars or telescopes. Or you might be looking for something fo...

DATE: Dec 9, 2015 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

Use Pegasus to anchor your view of fall sky

Greetings, stargazers. Before I talk about what’s up in Durango skies, I want to let everyone know how glad I am that daylight saving time has ended for the season. If it were l...

DATE: Nov 11, 2015 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

Look carefully to see Venus in daytime sky

Greetings, stargazers. Our brains fool us into thinking things near the horizon are bigger than they really are. And the power of suggestion works wonders in getting a crowd to ...

DATE: Oct 7, 2015 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

Sagittarius one of sky’s best views

Greetings, stargazers. Just after dark this month, the Milky Way crosses the sky almost directly overhead in a north-south band. While the weather is still warm, this would be a...

DATE: Sep 9, 2015 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

Scorpius’ stars put sting in summer sky

Greetings, stargazers. The late afternoon monsoon clouds finally parted and made for a few good observing evenings recently. Unfortunately for me, a couple of those nights were ...

DATE: Aug 12, 2015 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

New Horizons will deliver best view of Pluto

Greetings, stargazers. I hope you enjoyed the recent planetary conjunction in the western sky. From our perspective, Venus and Jupiter are now slowly separating from each other ...

DATE: Jul 8, 2015 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

Don’t forget to look up at our nightly sky

Greetings, stargazers. Thanks for reading my first Thursday column. Although the nights are very short as we approach the summer solstice, there still are lots of things to see a...

DATE: Jun 10, 2015 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies