Western Slope Skies

Western Slope Skies - The Lost Art of Looking Up

Colorado is home to several International DarkSky Places, including Paonia right here in the KVNF’s listening area. Naturita, Nucla, and Norwood are part of that growing

Western Slope Skies - Primetime Lunar Eclipse - August 27

On August 27 the Sun sets late, around 7:46 PM MDT, which allows enough time to get home from work or school, eat dinner, and get ready for the lunar show. The eclipse be

Western Slope Skies - Supernovae

In 2024, the popular Korean girl group aespa came out with a song called “Supernova,” a creative song that blends astronomy and art, representing the confidence and energ

Western Slope Skies - Circadian Rhythm Part 5: Living Systems

Here's where evolutionary biology meets modern medicine. Our ancestors lived with natural light-dark cycles for millions of years. Industrial lighting, shift work, and di

Western Slope Skies: Circadian Rhythm Part 4: Treatments

Remember nights when you tossed and turned, desperately trying to get some sleep? I think we can all relate. Circadian rhythm disorders, known as chronodisruption, arise

Western Slope Skies - Circadian Rhythm Part 3: Pathophysiology

What happens when a light switch disrupts billions of years of evolution?

Western Slope Skies: Circadian Rhythm Part 2: Anatomy and Physiology

Circadian rhythm—our endogenous biological clock—has synchronized life with Earth’s rotation for billions of years, from bacteria to humans. How does this specifically af

Western Slope Skies - Circadian Rhythm Part 1: Evolution

In 2025, Jamie Perce with the Western Slope Dark Sky Coalition presented an excellent series on circadian rhythm. The importance of this topic is prompting a deeper dive

Western Slope Skies - Shedding light on special relativity: Why photons don’t get old

If you have attended a night sky outreach event, conducted, for example, by the Black Canyon Astronomical Society or the Western Colorado Astronomy Club, then you have he

Western Slope Skies - Listening to Astronomy

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

Western Slope Skies - Neutron Stars

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.

Western Slope Skies - Exploring The Moon

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 ste

Western Slope Skies - Total Lunar Eclipse - March 3

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 mo

Western Slope Skies - Spectral Harbingers: Nacreous and Noctilucent Clouds

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 altoc

Western Slope Skies - Osiris Rex and Apophis

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

Western Slope Skies - Polaris Through the Ages

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 Pola

Western Slope Skies - Light Pollution and Urban Ecosystem Timing – Who woulda thought?

An article in the international journal Nature Cities by Lvlv Wang and co-authors document the effect of light pollution on the growing season in 428 Northern Hemisphere

Western Slope Skies - Rolling Under the Rockies: Dung Beetles in the Dark

The unappreciated dung, or scarab beetle, an insect that evolved about 130 million years ago, must accomplish its nocturnal task under increasingly difficult conditions;

Western Slope Skies - The Cosmic Connection: Awe and Mental Wellness

Awe, as researchers Maria Monroy and Dacher Keltner explain, is a transformative emotion. It soothes your nervous system, quiets self-doubt, fosters kindness, builds conn

Western Slope Skies - The Insect Apocalypse: How Light Pollution Threatens Our Smallest Neighbors

Have you noticed fewer insects around your porch light or fewer splattered bugs on your windshield? You're not alone. Scientists are calling this a new crisis—the "insect