Author – The Durango Herald

Constellations small and dim, but a joy to find

Greetings, stargazers. There are 88 keys on a piano, but I have yet to find a connection between that number and the fact there are also 88 constellations in the sky. Except, perhaps, that s...

DATE: Nov 13, 2021 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

The birds flying among the stars of the night sky

Greetings, stargazers. Aquila, the Eagle, may not be the most well-known, or most recognizable constellation, but it is straightforward to find, and is worth adding to your repertoire. It i...

DATE: Oct 9, 2021 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

Webb telescope to look at universe’s most distant objects

Greetings, stargazers. Light from distant stars travels for years in a perfectly straight line to get to Earth, only to be jiggled around and dispersed by the atmosphere in the last few kilo...

DATE: Sep 11, 2021 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

Mounts matter for successful telescope viewing

Greetings, stargazers. I don’t know who said it first, but it bears repeating that the best telescope is the one that gets used the most. Many of you are familiar with different types of tel...

DATE: Jul 10, 2021 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

Solstice – the day the sun stands still

Greetings, stargazers. I hope you were in a good location to see the lunar eclipse last month. I saw only clouds, but a friend of mine got to watch the eclipse from the South Pole. That brou...

DATE: Jun 12, 2021 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

Explore the features of our nearest celestial neighbor

Greetings, stargazers. The moon is our nearest neighbor in space, but it is often overlooked when stargazing. Many star parties will intentionally avoid evenings when the moon is in the sky....

DATE: May 11, 2021 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

Spring is galaxy season

Greetings, stargazers. For many amateur astronomers with small telescopes, spring is galaxy season. At any moderately dark site, which includes most of the Four Corners, you can ...

DATE: Apr 10, 2021 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

Catalogs can guide your exploration of deep sky objects

Greetings, stargazers. It has been several years since I looked up a phone number in a printed book. But a generation ago, a phone book was an essential tool for anyone with a te...

DATE: Mar 13, 2021 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

Gemini and its twins offer much to explore

Greetings, stargazers. Our season of conjunctions and comets ended when Venus and Jupiter passed each other on the morning of Feb. 11. Now, I plan to revisit a few constellations...

DATE: Feb 13, 2021 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

In January, Earth moves fastest around the sun

Greetings, stargazers. January is the month that the Earth moves the fastest around the sun. Or looked at from our perspective, the sun moves faster through the sky in January. E...

DATE: Jan 9, 2021 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

Jupiter, Saturn to converge in the ‘Great Conjunction’ on Dec. 21

Greetings, stargazers. Unless you have been living under a rock, you have probably heard there will be a “Great Conjunction” between Jupiter and Saturn on Dec. 21. Jupiter and Sa...

DATE: Dec 13, 2020 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

Binoculars greatly expand your view of the night sky

Greetings, stargazers. Every couple of years, I write a column about binocular observing because there are lots of things in the sky that benefit from the extra light gathering w...

DATE: Nov 14, 2020 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies