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Email: hakes_c@fortlewis.edu
Greetings, stargazers. If you haven’t seen a comet yet, this is your chance. Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) is now a dim naked-eye object. If you are not looking closely, it could be confused with any...
DATE: Jan. 24, 2015 | COLUMN: What's up in Durango Skies
Greetings, stargazers. Perhaps the most recognizable constellation in the winter sky is Orion. Many people unfamiliar with the night sky can at least recognize the three stars of Orion’s belt....
DATE: Dec. 27, 2014 | COLUMN: What's up in Durango Skies
Greetings, stargazers. I hope you enjoyed the recent great pictures from comet Churyumov–Gerasimenko (or 67P for short) as much as I did. Launched in 2004 by the European Space Agency, the...
DATE: Nov. 22, 2014 | COLUMN: What's up in Durango Skies
Greetings, stargazers. A very common question you may have asked or you might hear from a child is: “Why is the sky blue?” An excellent question that goes right along with: “Why are sunsets red?”...
DATE: Oct. 25, 2014 | COLUMN: What's up in Durango Skies
Greetings, stargazers. Ancient astronomers knew of five “wanderers” in the sky. These five planets – Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn – are all very bright, and, obviously, they move with...
DATE: Sept. 27, 2014 | COLUMN: What's up in Durango Skies
Greetings, stargazers. I hope you have been enjoying the dog days of summer. One reason these might be called the dog days is because Sirius, the dog star, is now roughly aligned with the sun....
DATE: Aug. 23, 2014 | COLUMN: What's up in Durango Skies
Greetings, stargazers. Last month, I talked about astrophotography on the cheap. You can take photos with wide fields of view and either very short or very long exposures to get your feet wet in...
DATE: July 26, 2014 | COLUMN: What's up in Durango Skies
Greetings, stargazers. Astrophotography is great fun even if you don’t have the most expensive camera on the block. At star parties, I frequently see people pull out their phone to snap a photo...
DATE: June 21, 2014 | COLUMN: What's up in Durango Skies
Greetings, stargazers. This time of year has fewer hours of darkness, but since school is out, I get more opportunities to use the Fort Lewis College Observatory. This spring, two physics...
DATE: May 24, 2014 | COLUMN: What's up in Durango Skies
Greetings, stargazers. I hope you enjoyed the lunar eclipse more than doing your taxes. If you missed this one, there are more to come in the next couple of years. The next one happens Oct. 8....
DATE: April 26, 2014 | COLUMN: What's up in Durango Skies
Greetings, stargazers. We have barely passed the equinox, but it already feels like we are heading into summer. I think another few feet of snow would be great, but in the mean time I hope you...
DATE: March 22, 2014 | COLUMN: What's up in Durango Skies
Greetings, stargazers. Timing is everything. One day after I submitted my What’s Up in Durango Skies column for January, the brightest supernova in a generation went off in M82. This one appears...
DATE: Feb. 22, 2014 | COLUMN: What's up in Durango Skies
