March 2025

  • Titan

    FAS Astronomers Blog, Volume 33, Number 3. The outer Solar System covers a vast distance from Jupiter (at just under half a billion miles from the Sun) out to Neptune (at 2.8 billion miles). As interesting as the outer gas giants (Jupiter and Saturn) and ice giants (Uranus and Neptune) are, it is the outer…

  • Spring into Spring

    Yes folks, it is spring! Technically, we reached the vernal equinox on Thursday March 20 at 5:01 EDT. This is when the Sun, which follows a path called the ecliptic, crossed an imaginary line above the equator called the celestial equator. It is also the day when there is an equal amount of daylight and…

  • That’s a wrap! The March 2025 Total Lunar Eclipse

    The March 2025 Total Lunar Eclipse has come and gone. Here are photos (and one video) of the eclipse from several FAS members. Images Credit: Lewis Weinstock Images Credit: Joe Haberthier Seestar Images Credit: Bruce Gavett Re-stacked and enhanced Seestar Images Credit: Bruce Gavett Images Credit: Tina Kelley (Special Guest) Video Credit: Bill Rankin For…

  • Happy Pi Day!

    Happy Pi Day everyone! Here is an astronomy blog we wrote a few years ago (Happy Pi Day and The Hierarchy of Numbers) and an article from the folks at NASA (How Many Decimals of Pi Do We Really Need?)

  • New Moons for the Solar System

    It is very difficult to keep up with the number of moons in our Solar System. On March 10, 2025, it was announced that Saturn has 128 NEW moons. Not just a total of 128, but 128 new moons bringing its total number of moons to 274. These are not huge moons like the Galilean…

  • Public observation at Stone Mountain (Saturday, March 22)

    WEATHER UPDATE: This event will take place. On Saturday, March 22, 2025 the Forsyth Astronomical Society will host a public astronomy observation at Stone Mountain State Park. It should be dark enough to observe by 8:30 PM. This event is weather-dependent. This post and the FAS Facebook page will be updated with the weather decision…

  • SPHEREx

    The Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (aka SPEHREx) is about ready to take off. SPHEREx is a new entry into NASA’s space telescopes that began with The Great Observatories. While the James Web Space Telescope (JWST) and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) focus on specific targets, SPHEREx…

  • A Total Lunar Eclipse (March 13-14)

    On the evening of March 13-14, there will be a total eclipse of the Moon. A lunar eclipse is not as spectacular as a solar eclipse, but it is still interesting to see the Earth’s shadow make its way across the Moon until we see the reddish glow from a “blood moon.” You will have…

  • March 2025 FAS Meeting (Wednesday, March 12)

    Please join us for the March meeting of the Forsyth Astronomical Society at 7:30 on Wednesday, March 12. The meeting will be held at the new Kaleideum at 120 West 3rd Street downtown in Winston-Salem, NC. The March program will be presented by FAS member Dr. William Rankin. Dr. Rankin will give a presentation on…