Author - The Durango Herald

Changing skies

Greetings stargazers. The night sky is changing. I am not talking about stars disappearing because of light pollution, even thought that is certainly an issue, but I am thinking of all the w...

DATE: Oct 12, 2025 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

Following one of the wanderers

Greetings, stargazers. Saturday is named for the prominent figure in Roman mythology. In addition to stargazing, this month should be great for Saturn-gazing. To ancient astronomers, Saturn ...

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

Examining the Rayleigh scattering effect

Greetings, stargazers. Most of us have heard the weather proverb “red skies at night, sailors delight; red skies at morning, sailors take warning.” I certainly enjoy watching a beautiful red...

DATE: Aug 15, 2025 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

The summer of the nebulae

Greetings, stargazers. Emission nebulae are the subject of many of the most spectacular astrophotographs published in the last decade. Although there are many subcategories of nebulae, they ...

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

The summer triangle

Galileo’s Telescope https://catalogue.museogalileo.it/object/GalileosTelescope_n01.html Aurora forecast https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/aurora-30-minute-forecast A...

DATE: Jun 5, 2025 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

Funding cuts land at Fort Lewis College

Greetings, stargazers. Federal grant cutting is finally hitting close to home. These grants have supported Fort Lewis College student activities for at least all of this century. Unfortunate...

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

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