FAS May 2013 Meeting Exoplanets   Explore beyond the Solar System at the May meeting of the Forsyth Astronomical Society. Prior to the 1990s, the only known planets were the nine orbiting the Sun. At the time, of course, Pluto was considered a Planet. In 1995, astronomers found a Jupiter sized planet orbiting the star…

“You can almost touch the stars” Webiner presenter : Tom Field Even if you wanted to touch a star, they’re impossibly distant. But despite these great distances, researchers have learned a great deal about quite a few stars. How? The most common method to study the stars is called spectroscopy, which is the art and…

Tuesday March 26, 2013 Sci Works: 7:30 pm Program: Radio Astronomy at 21 cm   Rexford Adelberger, Ph.D. Professor of Physics, Emeritus Guilford College Dr Adelberger’s talk on March 26th will explain the generation and detection of radio signals. He will then describe the radio astronomy program at Guilford College that is tuned to the…

Discussion leader/Presenter: Bruce Mellin Comet Conversations We are fortunate this year to be expecting the passage of two interesting comets. Both have hyperbolic orbits and are approaching the Sun for the first time. Predicting the brightness of even known periodic comets is well known to be a tricky business. Professional and amateur astronomers alike will…