by Zachary Singer
My Friends,
It’s been four years since I came on as the Denver Observer’s editor and (soon after) writer of the “Monthly Skies” column. When I started, we were still putting out an eight-page PDF—it was accompanied by a printed black-and-white edition. I miss the old publication in some ways, but I’m proud to have pushed for our move to WordPress—we’ve only scratched the surface of what the new platform can do. (Putting up our own video is one exciting possibility.)
Around the same time that we reinvented the Observer, other Denver Astronomical Society members expanded our web services, and we now have a member portal (the “Wild Apricot” system), that can support member forums—and therefore, discussions about all things relating to our Society, and to the night sky itself. Like the Observer, the portal offers great potential for us, and we should tap it!
To encourage this, I have some concrete suggestions for the future of our “Skies” column.
First, though, let me say that writing the “Skies” has been both a privilege and a grand adventure. They say that to really learn something, teach (or describe) it to someone else—and that has been my experience here. Every month, I’ve zeroed in on a chosen few celestial objects, describing them to you and showing you in detail how to find them—and now, the night sky resonates in the back of my mind, in a way it couldn’t have otherwise. I hope that some of the wonder that I experienced rubbed off on you, too.
As much as the “Skies” column has meant to me though, we now have alternatives available to us, so here are those suggestions:
First, we have the member portal’s forum. Why settle for one writer, and that one person’s experiences, when the whole DAS can contribute? We have some 600 members, last I heard, and they range in ability, experience, and equipment.
Rather than one writer going out to have a look at the sky and report back, we can have folks with a huge variety of telescopes (and eyepieces, and cameras…) telling us what they saw. That means reports from small, 70mm refractors, huge Dobsonian ’scopes and everything between. Many of our members have 30 or 40 years of observing experience—they can certainly teach us a thing or two—and our less-experienced folks can keep the conversation going with questions. Members can also bring insights into newer gear and approaches that others have missed—stir this pot online, and we could have wonderful results!
Second, in the time I’ve written the “Skies” column, we’ve covered nearly 150 stars or deep-sky objects, along with observable phenomena of the solar system, like the planets, the Moon, eclipses, and so forth. While descriptions of upcoming solar-system events require frequent updates, the deep sky doesn’t. The appearance of a given star cluster or nebula (and most of the binary stars we see) won’t change much from year to year, so a four-year-old description of the star “Almach, aka Gamma (γ) Andromedae,” will be about as useful today as it was originally. So will the write-ups of the Messier and NGC objects!
All the material I wrote, as well as much from my predecessor, Dennis Cochran, remains online, so an index of all the objects covered for a given month (that is, everything we have for “January” or “June,” etc., irrespective of the year) could be an important—and reasonably sustainable—resource. (The archive for back-issues of the Denver Observer before January 2019 is available at the Denver Observer Archives page.) If desired, a small crew of DAS volunteers could assemble a table of links to the old files, lessening the need to write new material about objects that have already been described. (Remember, this can be done in addition to the new observing-related forum discussed above.)
The direction of the Denver Observer and the “Skies” column is up to you, too—if you have new ideas or suggestions for improvement, pitch in! Write us at editor@denverastro.org and tell us what you think.
With all this in mind, I can now tell you that I am stepping down as the Denver Observer’s editor and writer of the “Monthly Skies.” We have a new editor lined up, the baton is being passed with care, and the old Observer will be in good hands, in whatever form works best for our Society. (Our new editor will introduce himself soon.) Of course, the “Monthly Skies” can continue with a new writer—or a round-robin of writers contributing every second or third month. As we’ve seen though, there are other paths forward.
As for me, I’ll still be around, pitching in (and contributing an occasional article)—but my attention needs to focus elsewhere, including developing the “Monthly Skies” into a book. Though other pursuits beckon, I will truly miss this.
—See you under the stars.