On Sunday, June 2nd, about a dozen members of the DAS volunteered at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science’s Space Day. While some volunteers answered the public’s questions at tables inside the museum, others showed visitors the Sun through their solar telescopes.… Continue reading.
The Van Nattan-Hansen Scholarship Fund is now accepting applications for 2019. Denver Astronomical Society’s VNH Scholarship program provides support for worthy graduating high school students or undergraduate college students majoring in astronomy and the physical sciences.… 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…
The Solar SystemMercury 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….
The Solar SystemTechnically, 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 Ed Ladner
First, let me express my appreciation to all the DAS members who participated in the most recent elections. Without your support, this Society could not exist.
I’d like to talk with you about volunteerism—the only thing that makes our Society work.… Continue reading.
by Don Lynn
Asteroid SampledHayabusa2 (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.
This month, we have a joint message, with Ron Hranac, our outgoing president, starting off. Ed Ladner, the DAS president-elect, follows… —Editor
February’s well-attended annual membership meeting had a packed agenda, including election of Executive Board (“E-Board”) officers and trustees to serve a one-year term beginning later this month.… Continue reading.
The DAS In-Reach originally scheduled for Saturday, February 23rd, 2019, has been cancelled.