Sharing the Night Sky with the Public Since 1949

For over seventy-five years, the Denver Astronomical Society has brought together stargazers across the Denver metropolitan area and beyond. The society hosts dozens of events and activities yearly to promote amateur astronomy across our unique region, one mile nearer the stars.

July

8:30 pm - 8:30 pm

Open House

Looking for a FREE fun family activity? Join the Denver Astronomical Society for our monthly Open House Saturday night at dusk. This event will occur on the south lawn of DU’s historic Chamberlin Observatory, 2930 E. Warren Avenue, Denver. Weather … Read More ...

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A Warped Accretion Disk, a Circumbinary Planet and Colliding Planets

Hubble Resumes Observing – In late October, a computer onboard the Hubble Space Telescope detected that communications between computers and instruments were missing critical synchronization messages. All instruments were placed in safe mode so ground controllers could troubleshoot the problem. They tested each instrument independently and found all operating correctly, meaning the fault was likely somewhere in the communications, though they’re still investigating the root cause. Controllers then tried operating the Hubble’s Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) to test communications, and were able to operate it correctly. Starting out with the NICMOS presented little risk to science as…
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Daffy Duck

Agreed, this seems like an awfully daffy title for an astronomy article. But there is method to the madness, and there is a story. During the late summer of 2019 there was a star party in southeast Arizona that featured a dark sky and five perfect back-to-back nights. As I spent hour after hour hunting for comets, I came across the sprawling North America Nebula in the northern sky constellation of Cygnus the swan. But this time something different appeared. It was a strange structure, the outline of a dark nebula bordered by a slightly brighter cloud. The whole feature…
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President’s November Updates

Hello, fellow DAS members. The President’s corner is back and there’s a lot to catch up on. First, a big thank you to everyone who took the time to complete the recent Member Survey. We on the executive board are excited to receive your input, and are weighing how to best answer your questions and address the issues that were raised. I want to thank member Tony Gojanovic for creating the survey, as well as an analysis for the executive board. One thing that stood out is that the vast majority who answered were over 55 years of age. This…
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Astro Update – November 2021

Mars Floods – The Mars rover Perseverance has been studying the western delta fan, which was built up by layers of sediment dropped into Jezero Crater by a river, back when the crater was a lake, about 3.7 billion years ago. The fan contains about two dozen large boulders and hundreds of smaller stones that had to have been carried here by powerful floods, rather than gently flowing water. These rocks are believed to have been carried here from tens of miles away. Based on the position of the boulders relative to calmly layered areas, scientists believe that the violent…
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Chamberlin Observatory Tours

The Denver Astronomical Society hosts weekly and monthly events* at the University of Denver’s historic Chamberlin Observatory, which features its prized 1894 Alvan Clark-Saegmuller 20-inch refracting telescope. The Observatory serves as the DAS home base for numerous Astronomy Nights, Open Houses, and special events throughout the year.

Due to overwhelming demand, we are changing how we reserve our Astronomy Nights and adding more to the calendar. For details, see our Reservations page.

If you have any questions about EXISTING reservations or want to change your existing reservation, email us at reservations@denverastro.org.

M•45 – Pleiades, Seven Sisters, Subaru image by Darrell Dodge

Astrophotography Special Interest Group

The Denver Astronomical Society (DAS) has established a Special Interest Group amongst its members devoted to Astrophotography. Do you want to learn or improve your skills in astrophotography? Do you enjoy viewing pictures of the Sun, Moon, Planets, or Deep Sky Objects? Can you take similar images? You may have skills that you could pass on to novice members. Consider joining DAS and being part of this Special Interest Group. Please email us for more information. astrophotogroup@denverastro.org

The Van Nattan-Hansen-Anderson Scholarship

Established in 1973, the DAS Van Nattan-Hansen-Anderson Scholarship supports graduating high school and undergraduate college students majoring in astronomy and the physical sciences. Interested and eligible students are invited to apply for funding on the Scholarship Page.