Astronomy

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.… Continue reading.

by Jeff Kanipe

This month, we have a wonderful surprise for you—a tour of the southern sky, as seen from Chile, by Jeff Kanipe, author of the highly regarded series, Annals of the Deep Sky.… Continue reading.

by Zachary Singer

Along with the planets this month, we’ve got two targets in the constellation Canes Venatici—one is a sun-like star, and the other a bright spiral galaxy. Let’s get going…

Mercury starts May as a morning object, technically speaking—it’s very low on the horizon before dawn, and moving closer to the Sun daily.… Continue reading.

by Zachary Singer

For April, we’re looking at a beautiful binary in Leo, and some galaxies in a tight grouping—but perhaps not the one you’re guessing! First, though, we have the planets….

Technically, Mercury will be up before the Sun in early April, but even at greatest elongation on the 11th (when the planet appears farthest from the Sun on this orbit), it will remain very low over the horizon, less than half an hour before sunrise.… Continue reading.

by Don Lynn

Hayabusa2 (a Japanese spacecraft) has touched down on its target, the asteroid Ryugu, and completed a procedure to fire a projectile into it and collect the debris blown off. Another sample will be taken from inside a fresh impact crater to find out what the inside of the asteroid is made of.… Continue reading.

© Zachary Singer

In March, we have a relatively quiet month for planets: Most of them are now early-morning objects, but they are at a greater angle from the Sun, allowing better observing. In the “Stars and Deep Sky” section, we’ll look at two stars in the constellation Cancer—the first is a wonderful binary, and the other, a lesser-known carbon star.… Continue reading.

More data has been received from the New Horizons spacecraft since its recent flyby of the Kuiper Belt object informally named Ultima Thule. One new result is that the larger of the object’s two lobes is not so much spherical, as thick-pancake-shaped.… Continue reading.

DAS members were out in droves for the January 2019 full lunar eclipse, and they sent in some of their images…   Here’s a selection of their work:

Have you thought about a leadership role in Denver Astronomical Society?… Continue reading.

by Zachary Singer

Some of our favorite planetary targets, Venus and Jupiter, are up in the pre-dawn sky this month, and Mercury appears in the evening, as we’ll see in “The Solar System,” below. In “Stars and Deep Sky,” we’ll take a look at two notable open clusters in Auriga, M36 and M37.… Continue reading.

by Don Lynn

On December 31st, New Horizons (Pluto spacecraft) flew by the Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69, since unofficially named Ultima Thule, at a distance of only 2200 miles, fervently taking images and other data.… Continue reading.