Latest News and Posts

  • The History of the Universe

    FAS Astronomers Blog, Volume 30, Number 6. This is a story of the Universe. The Universe is big, really big. It also has an interesting history, although one where lots of things happened in the first three minutes or so before everything settled down to a 13.8-billion-year timeline stretching up to the present. I guess…

  • Lunar Eclipse

    Lunar Eclipse Sunday Night/Monday Morning, May 15/16, 2022 9:32 pm to 2:50 am Kaleideum North (formerly SciWorks) 400 West Hanes Mill Road Winston-Salem, NC https://north.kaleideum.org/visit/directions/ Update: Sunday May 15 @ 2:30 pm – The weather is looking good. This observation is on! On the evening of Sunday May 15 at 9:32 pm, The Earth will…

  • May 2022 FAS Meeting

    Moons, moons, and more moons Forsyth Astronomical Society May Meeting Wednesday, May 11 @ 7:30 pm Kaleideum North (formerly SciWorks) 400 West Hanes Mill Road Winston-Salem, NC https://north.kaleideum.org/visit/directions/ Most of us are familiar with the planets of the Solar System; All eight of them … okay maybe nine. How about moons? We often look up…

  • Stars

    FAS Astronomers Blog, Volume 30, Number 5. Stars are huge balls of hydrogen plasma powered by nuclear fusion reactions at their core. Stellar Distances Except for the Sun, which is 93 million miles away, stars are a vast distance from us. Therefore, it isn’t always practical to measure these distances in miles, so astronomers use…

  • Astrology to Astronomy

    FAS Astronomers Blog, Volume 30, Number 4. I don’t know how many times I talk to someone who knows that I have an interest in Astronomy, but they refer to it as Astrology. Well Astrology does have something to do with the night sky and, from an historical standpoint, it is related to astronomy. Both…

  • Statewide Star Party, FAS Public Observations April 8th and 9th

    Update 4/8: The observation atop Pilot Mountain had been canceled due to inclement weather. The non-observation related activities are still happening. So, if you’re looking for a family friendly event for the early evening there will still be plenty to do. The Forsyth Astronomical Society will be participating in two observations for Morehead Planetarium’s Statewide…

  • Cosmic Distances, Stellar Brightness, and The Hubble Constant

    FAS Astronomers Blog, Volume 30, Number 3. The Hubble Constant The Universe is expanding. The farther a galaxy is from us, the faster it is moving away from us. We measure this expansion using something called the Hubble constant, which is the rate with which galaxies are receding from us as a function of their…

  • Project Mercury

    FAS Astronomers Blog, Volume 30, Number 2. Sixty years ago this month (February 20, 1962), Astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth. He did so as part of NASA’s Project Mercury. This is the story. On October 4, 1957, a small round ball called Sputnik was launched into orbit by the…

  • Dark Energy

    FAS Astronomers Blog, Volume 30, Number 1. In a previous article, I explored the Standard Model of Particle Physics and discussed what ordinary matter is made of. It can be a bit confusing because of the different ways to look at it. Matter is made up of atoms, which are composed of protons, neutrons, and…