The Black Canyon of the Gunnison earned its name from the limited light that reaches its deepest corners during the day. At night, little artificial light, too, intrudes upon its skies, making the canyon a prime location for viewing the celestial wonders above. The annual astronomy festival AstroFest returns again this month to celebrate such sights as well as the Western Slope's precious access to these natural skies.

When is a hole not really a hole…when it is a solar coronal hole!

Recalling the elementary-school mnemonic My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pickles, you would know that Mercury is the first and closest planet to the Sun. It is also the fastest-- completing a solar year in 88 Earth days. Mercury’s bright, brief apparition in twilight skies inspired its naming after the Greco-Roman herald of the gods. Though familiar to ancient stargazers, our modern scientific understanding of Mercury unveils a bizarre, paradoxical world.

The sun is shining, the sand feels warm beneath your toes, and you're watching the waves crash over one another. They rise to where you are standing, rushing over your feet and then fall back down. A few hours later, you come back to the same spot- and this time, the waves fall short of reaching you. You pause and start to wonder why... and then, you look up at the sky and spot the moon. There's your answer.

Picture our ancestors spellbound by star-drenched skies, their lives woven into the vibrant dawn and night’s inky embrace. These celestial rhythms guided their slumber, journeys, and myths, tying us to the cosmos.

You may have seen the recently released ‘first images’ from the Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile. The images are stunning and portend a new level of scientific data expanding our knowledge of the Universe. However, what do you know about Vera Rubin?

For those who have seen Star Wars, even those who may not be huge fans, there are some planets that stick out in the films. Tatooine, the sand planet, home to Anakin and Luke Skywalker, Hoth, the ice planet from The Empire Strikes Back, and Naboo, Queen Amidala’s home planet. Though these planets are in a galaxy far, far away, there are some real planets that resemble those featured in Star Wars, in our own Milky Way galaxy!

Archeoastronomy is the study of how ancient civilizations understood celestial phenomena. They integrated this understanding into cultural and religious frameworks. Some famous archeoastronomy sites are in the Egyptian pyramids and on Easter island. Mythological texts, ritual calendars, and religious ceremonies synchronized with planetary movements. Some examples are the Sun Temple in Mesa Verde, and the complexes at Chaco Canyon near Aztec, New Mexico.

Have you ever looked up and witnessed spectacular displays of green, white, pink and yellow lights? If you have ever visited the polar regions, or the auroral oval on Earth; then your response most likely should be a yes. The official names for these extraordinary lights are called aurora borealis, for the Northern hemisphere; and aurora australis, for the southern hemisphere.

The Sun is the star at the center of our Solar System. The Sun governs our daily lives, and energy from the Sun has been essential for nearly all life on Earth for more than 3 billion years. But what if there were two, three, four, five, or even six Suns in our sky? That question might seem ridiculous, but it turns out that more than half of the stars in our galaxy are either in double star or multiple star systems that are held together by gravity.