Western Slope Skies

In astronomy, we rely heavily on visual information. Images from telescopes, graphs of light curves, plotted orbits, spectra and diagrams. Most of the ways we understand astronomy today are shown through these two-dimensional formats. It's almost always something we look at. But vision is only one way of interpreting information. From quantum physics to the largest structures in the universe, the underlying reality is governed by motion, frequency and structure.

We all know how weird black holes are, but did you know there is another type of star that is just as strange? Welcome to the universe of neutron stars.

When we gaze at the Moon in the future, we’ll contemplate that we humans have extended our reach to Earth’s nearest celestial neighbor. Perhaps this will be our first step toward making human life interplanetary.

Let’s hope for clear skies on the morning of March 3, when the Western Slope will be treated to a total lunar eclipse. During the early hours of March 3, the Moon will move through Earth’s shadow, creating one of the more eerie sights in nature.

Who doesn’t like a pretty cloud in the sky? As familiar as the Sun and the Moon, clouds assume a wide array of shapes and sizes—from ominous cumulonimbus to cottony altocumulus, feathery cirrus to leaden stratus, and various hybrids in-between. We see them year-round worldwide, boding fair and foul weather alike.

How did life originate? Did it form on Earth or elsewhere in the solar system and was it seeded on Earth by impact of an asteroid? Will life eventually be wiped out by an asteroid? While we may never know the answers to these questions, scientists are attempting to study as much as possible about the origins of life and the possibilities of future asteroid collisions with the Earth.

On a clear night if you look in the sky towards true north, you’ll notice a star that seems to never change direction. If you’re able to find this star, it is called Polaris.