Western Slope Skies: Recent Episodes
Jeff Reynolds
A bi-weekly short feature on astronomy, produced by members of the Black Canyon Astronomical Society.Link for podcast apps:https://www.kvnf.org/podcast/western-slope-skies/rss.xml
For those who have seen Star Wars, even those who may not be huge fans, there are some planets that stick out in the films. Tatooine, the sand planet, home to Anakin and Luke Skywalker, Hoth, the ice planet from The Empire Strikes Back, and Naboo, Queen Amidala’s home planet. Though these planets are in a galaxy far, far away, there are some real planets that resemble those featured in Star Wars, in our own Milky Way galaxy!
Archeoastronomy is the study of how ancient civilizations understood celestial phenomena. They integrated this understanding into cultural and religious frameworks. Some famous archeoastronomy sites are in the Egyptian pyramids and on Easter island. Mythological texts, ritual calendars, and religious ceremonies synchronized with planetary movements. Some examples are the Sun Temple in Mesa Verde, and the complexes at Chaco Canyon near Aztec, New Mexico.
Have you ever looked up and witnessed spectacular displays of green, white, pink and yellow lights? If you have ever visited the polar regions, or the auroral oval on Earth; then your response most likely should be a yes. The official names for these extraordinary lights are called aurora borealis, for the Northern hemisphere; and aurora australis, for the southern hemisphere.
The Sun is the star at the center of our Solar System. The Sun governs our daily lives, and energy from the Sun has been essential for nearly all life on Earth for more than 3 billion years. But what if there were two, three, four, five, or even six Suns in our sky? That question might seem ridiculous, but it turns out that more than half of the stars in our galaxy are either in double star or multiple star systems that are held together by gravity.
Nature operates on an intricate and precise schedule, guided by circadian rhythms—internal biological clocks that regulate sleep, activity, feeding, and reproduction. These rhythms are not only essential for human health but are also fundamental to the behavior of migratory birds, pollinators, and even the crops we cultivate. Understanding these natural cycles is crucial, particularly in rural communities where agriculture and wildlife conservation are deeply interconnected.
We live in a world that rarely slows down—late-night work, glowing screens, and irregular schedules have become the norm. But what if I told you that constantly ignoring your body’s natural rhythms could put you at risk for serious diseases, including heart disease and breast cancer? The key to understanding this lies in our circadian rhythm—our body’s internal 24-hour clock that regulates sleep, metabolism, and cellular repair among other bodily processes.
On the night of March 13 to 14, the Moon will move through Earth’s shadow, creating a total lunar eclipse that is visible from Colorado.
Planetary alignment is a phenomenon where other planets in our solar system align from Earth’s perspective. It is a rare event with some alignments occurring once in 100 years.
For those of us living away from our larger cities and towns, the West Slopearea from Grand Junction south to Cortez is one of the darkest places onEarth where people live. We know that by experience but that darkness hasbeen measured by satellites.
My whole life I’ve been asked the daunting question that seemed to put my whole belief system on trial. Aliens, were they real or not? If I had said yes, I was crazy, a conspiracy theorist who didn’t know the difference between fictional video game characters and real life. But if I had said no, I’d be shutting down the entire possibility of there being something more to life than just what my little planet has to offer.
Today dark skies are dwindling world-wide thanks to a dramatic increase in light pollution effects. Much like wildlife that once roamed this country extensively but were later pushed to protected areas like national parks for survival, our darkest skies now mostly remain above public lands.
Our galaxy is made up of billions of stars, gas, and dust, and it’s truly something astonishing to see and be a part of.
Astrology and astronomy – the words sound so similar. So why do you get such a stink-eye from your friend the astronomer when you call her an astrologer?
Sixty-nine years ago, Humanity first contacted the Moon’s surface with Luna 2, the former Soviet Union’s uncrewed lunar probe. One may wonder what has been left behind over the decades. The answer is well over 200 tons of diverse artifacts. Behind the materials are many stories-- mundane, poignant, controversial, and amusing.
Viewing Northern Lights in Colorado is certainly possible, even common at times, such as during high levels of solar activity also known as "Solar Maximum.”
Stories, such as the one I’ve just shared and many others around the globe, were used to interpret the stars and celestial objects that people have seen sparkling in the night sky.
Throughout history, a belief in the “fixed” and changeless stars was held by many cultures. But at the beginning of the 19th Century, Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi repeatedly measured the position of a star called 61 Cygni. Piazzi’s work overturned such long-held beliefs and led to research that ultimately allowed astronomers to accurately measure the scale of the Milky Way Galaxy and to learn of our location within it.
The Sun has been ‘in the news’ these days. You may have read about various phenomena associated with the Sun, including sunspots, flares, and auroras or Northern Lights. So why all the interest in the Sun now?
AstroFest 2024 will feature dark night skies along the entire Gunnison River corridor from Curecanti National Recreation Area (certified Dark Sky in 2021) all the way to Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area – celebrating their recent certification as a Dark Sky Place.
Every year, right in the middle of August, my cousins and I drag all our sleeping bags andpillows up to their roof and wait for the sky event that goes highly unnoticed every year: the Perseid meteor shower.
Halos arise from sunlight refraction through microscopic ice crystals, usually aloft in cirrus clouds.
A star begins its life as a cloud of gas and dust. These are called molecular clouds, and they can range between 1,000 to 10 million times the mass of the sun.
A planetary alignment means that 3 or more planets line up in a row, as seen from the Earth, in the same area of the sky, that is, a “parade of planets”. The planets lie ROUGHLY on a line called the ecliptic, the path that the Sun appears to follow against the background of stars as we on Earth orbit the Sun. The parade can be tens of degrees in length.
When a star dies what is left behind is called a stellar remnant. The type of stellar remnant is dependent upon the star’s mass.
This year’s Lake City Star Fest will be held June 7-9. We invite the public to celebrate the incredible starry night skies in our area along with some of Lake City’s rich and colorful cultural heritage.
While gazing at that mystical point of light, time and space seem to disappear, if only for a moment. Even us older stargazers can still find plenty to wonder about when it comes to twinkling stars.
On Monday, April 8, 2024, we’ll be able to see a total solar eclipse from parts of Mexico, the U. S., and Canada. Another such eclipse won’t be visible from the 48 contiguous States for 20 years.
The Coalition, a 501c3 non-profit, is an umbrella organization dedicated to supporting Dark Sky Places.
The Sun is a star that provides Earth with the energy that drives most of our diverse and amazing biology. But where and how do stars form?
On clear, dark nights, we can see dozens of satellites with our eyes alone. Most satellites travel within a zone called Low Earth Orbit that ranges in altitude from 150 to 1200 miles.
What if I told you that you could travel through time with a telescope? No, a telescope cannot take you back to 1955 to fix your parent’s relationship. However, through a telescope, the possibilities to discover events that happened eons ago are opened by gazing at the colossal night sky.
In the vast expanse of the cosmos, there exists a mysterious force that challenges the very fabric of our understanding — dark matter. Let's embark on a journey into the cosmic unknown, exploring the enigma that comprises 85% of the universe's mass.
Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park and the surrounding Hill Country will be offering many events over eclipse weekend.
In December, it’s tempting to stay inside and avoid the cold night air. But the December night sky is impressive! Find a star chart or planetarium App, then go out on a clear night, at least briefly, to enjoy the spectacle!
You may fondly remember the classic Eighties science program Cosmos, narrated by the late great astrophysicist Carl Sagan. In the episode “The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean”, he famously uttered “we’re made of star stuff”. We are the products of nucleosynthesis, a set of processes that created the chemical elements, the building blocks of all we see and are.
Dark matter. You’ve probably heard of it, maybe in a Sci-Fi novel or movie, and you’ve probably wondered what it is exactly. Well, welcome to the club. Scientists have been asking themselves this question since its discovery in 1933. Dark matter is an invisible, mysterious substance that makes up 22% of the universe, but we know very little about it.
Ring nebulae and the rings of Saturn are among some familiar rings that exist in space. But consider ring galaxies!
In a total eclipse, the moon covers the sun completely and the sky darkens as if it were dawn or dusk.
On the night of October 5, 1923, using the 100-inch Hooker telescope on Mt. Wilson, Edwin Hubble captured a photographic plate image of M31, the Andromeda “Nebula”.
This year’s festival will run from September 14 through 16th, to coincide with the September new moon.
If you’ve been paying attention to the news in the past year you’ve no doubt heard about the James Webb Space Telescope. However, there is another space telescope that still deserves your attention.
One of the best meteor showers of the year will peak during the second weekend of August, presenting the perfect opportunity to spot shooting stars streaking across the sky.
Recently, scientists announced detection of a persistent gravitational wave background (GWB), continually rippling the cosmos like a calm ocean breeze.
When people hear the name “Edwin Hubble,” they typically think of the Hubble Space Telescope. However, the Hubble Space Telescope was built after Edwin Hubble’s death as a way to honor him.
The concept of scotobiology as a science was developed at a conference on light pollution held in Muskoka, Ontario, in 2003. Just as the word “photo” relates to light, “scoto” is the word that relates to “darkness.” Therefore, Scotobiology is the study of the role darkness plays in living organisms.
Have you ever wished upon a shooting star? For most of us, the novelty of wishing on a shooting star has faded since the days of our childhood.
The telescope’s most important discovery to date has been finding the farthest black hole located at the center of a rare type of galaxy.
On September 26, 2022, a NASA spacecraft ran into the asteroid Dimorphos at nearly 15,000 miles per hour. Far from being a multi-million-dollar boondoggle, this collision is precisely what astronomers had planned. The spacecraft was part of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission, or DART for short. The goal: to test technology that could potentially divert a large asteroid, should we ever locate one on a collision course with Earth.
From June 7-11, we will hold our first ever StarFest to celebrate Lake City’s starry skies and gather other dark sky advocates and interested folks from the western slope, the San Luis Valley, and throughout Colorado to see what more can be done to assure our precious night skies can be enjoyed by future generations. Unfortunately, light pollution is getting worse around the world so taking action is critical to turning things around.
Gleaming naked-eye apparition, Venus has captivated civilization since antiquity, garnering epithets of divine power and beauty-- Chac-Ek (“Great Star”) in Mayan, Jin-xing (“Golden Planet”) in Chinese, Phosphoros (“Lightbringer”) in Greek.
Back when our beloved western cities were still young and their skies still dark, customers waited weeks or even months for basic household items to reach their local mercantile shelves.
Imagine being a poor 13-year old boy living in France in 1744 and observing a 6-tailed comet in the daytime. What aspirations might that have generated in a teenager?
The name Milky Way means two things: the star-packed photogenic river of stars across sky for one. It also refers to the hundreds of billions of stars that make up our galaxy. No matter where you look in the Western Slope sky, every star is part of our galaxy.
Comets, once considered portents of doom, have long puzzled us. They move rapidly against the starry background. They grow tails, which may explain why the ancient Greeks called them “hairy stars.” Their brightness and even their exact paths can be hard to predict. So, what are these mysterious visitors that sometimes appear in our sky?
In the very early hours of November 8, the second total lunar eclipse of 2022 will be visible from Western Colorado.
In the very early hours of November 8, the second total lunar eclipse of 2022 will be visible from Western Colorado.
This month is a great time to view Jupiter, because this 86,000 mile-wide, giant planet is visible nearly all night long.
Over 80% of people living in the United States cannot see the Milky Way from where they live because of too much artificial light at night.
Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park celebrates dark skies and the Autumnal Equinox at Astrofest 2022
Our solar system has over 200 confirmed moons, with some that show the potential to harbor life.
Astrobiologists study extreme environments preserved within National Parks to learn how life might exist in similar niches on other worlds.
Twilight each morning & evening is divided into three phases - civil, nautical and astronomical.
Observing the night sky, we can see light finally reaching us after traveling large distances and spans of time, letting us step back in the history of Earth and the universe.
NASA launched a mission into the heavens, named for the fossilized primate skeleton Lucy, to seek clues of planetary evolution within our Solar System.
Humans have looked up at the sky for thousands of years. These days, we look up for inspiration, discovery, and exploration. We look up in search of a deeper understanding of the universe around us and our place in it.
What will it take to make Mars habitable? For human life to survive on another planet, either the environment needs to be naturally similar to Earth, or be modifiable.
The bright star Sirius in the constellation Canis Major gave rise to the concept of "dog days," referring to summer's heat, but the depth of winter is the perfect time to observe it.
Story is a time-honored way for humans to communicate meaning, to shape minds, to pass along cultural ways, to reach another person’s heart. Maybe this is why there are so many stories for the constellation commonly known as Cassiopeia.
In his 1925 poem “The Hollow Men,” English poet T. S. Eliot wrote “this is the way the world ends / not with a bang but a whimper,” referring to the irony of modernity. But Eliot could have easily been speaking about the cosmic condition-- how everything may end. Cosmologists generally agree on the Universe’s beginning, as an instantaneous, seething quantum inflation of space, time, and energy— the Big Bang. But its swan song is open to debate, with several theoretical scenarios in play.
If you stay up late on the night of November 18, or get up very early on November 19, you can see a special treat: the second lunar eclipse of 2021 - provided of course, that skies are clear.
Do you remember the last time you heard a helicopter’s whirring rotors in the distance, so distinct from its other flying cousins? Once the machine appears in the sky, you have to wonder: “Where is it going? Where did it come from? What happened?”
Do you remember the last time you heard a helicopter’s whirring rotors in the distance, so distinct from its other flying cousins? Once the machine appears in the sky, you have to wonder: “Where is it going? Where did it come from? What happened?”
Most of us are probably familiar with the massive asteroid that impacted Earth near Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula some 65 million years ago. This asteroid, with a supposed diameter of around six miles, is the one often held responsible for the demise of the dinosaurs. Yet this asteroid is just one of many that have whizzed through our atmosphere and slammed into Earth’s surface over the course of our planet’s history.
Crisp, clear Autumn nights are some of the best nights for stargazing here in western Colorado. As you head out to enjoy the view, remember these seven tips to help you make the most of your stargazing experience.
Grand Mesa Observatory. Contrary to popular belief, it is not the old, small building on top of the mesa where the chipmunks live!
Have you ever had the chance to gaze upon the Milky Way? Our ancestors could easily see the Milky Way and thousands of stars in the night sky from their homes. In the present day, if you get a chance to enjoy a truly dark sky, then you’re one of the lucky ones! According to the 2016 World Atlas of Artificial Brightness, the Milky Way is not visible to about two-thirds of the world’s population, including about 80% of North Americans.
What’s that brilliant star in the west after sunset? That “star” is actually not a star, but Venus, Earth’s Sister Planet. After hiding in the Sun’s glare for most of winter and early spring, Venus emerged as a brilliant evening “star” last May. Now, as twilight fades, Venus dazzles us in the west.
It’s hard to imagine not knowing about Saturn’s rings. The planet is iconic, and even those least interested in astronomy can still picture it. Yet, for thousands of years, we didn’t know. Early sky watchers saw Saturn with unaided eyes, looking like a rather bright star.
As a child, I was tasked with chores to help keep the house in order, none of which I dreaded more than dusting. It seemed a Sisyphean punishment - tenacious, sneeze-inducing; dust always returned no matter how hard I tried to eradicate it. But it was also mysterious - grey anonymous matter, seemingly sprung from nowhere. I would later learn that dust comprises minuscule bits of dirt, soot, pollen, fabric, dander…and heavenly bodies. That’s right - terrestrial dust is partly cosmic.
Famed astronomer and prolific author Carl Sagan put it succinctly: “Exploration is in our nature. We began as wanderers and we are wanderers still.”
The James Webb Telescope is NASA‘s newest space telescope that’s been in development for about 25 years and has cost nearly 10 billion dollars to build, more than double what it was initially supposed to cost. NASA and its partners are planning to launch it on Halloween of this year.
Have you ever wondered why the summer solstice is the longest day in the year? This year the summer solstice will be on Sunday, June 20th, which will officially be our first day of summer.
If you have any interest in astronomy, then you have most likely heard of black holes. Or you may have watched the movie Interstellar and had no idea what was going on but knew black holes were at the center of it. They are extremely massive objects that we cannot see, yet they affect their surroundings in measurable ways. It’s intriguing to think that something exists where even light, the fastest moving source in all of the universe, cannot escape the gravitational pull of a black hole. Even time itself is altered in the presence of a black hole.