🗞️ The moon turns copper over Kernersville late Thursday night

🗞️ Police have a name in the Piney Grove Road hit-and-run

🗞️ An astronaut who flew around the Moon in April is speaking in Greensboro

🗞️ Walkertown opened its season by shutting out Atkins 47-0

☀️ Mostly Sunny | High: 87°F | Low: 68°F

Wednesday is the last dry day on the board, so use it. Mostly sunny, a high near 87, a southeast wind at 1 to 7 miles an hour and only a 4 percent chance of rain during the daylight hours. The pattern turns overnight: a 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after about 10 PM, mostly cloudy, with a low around 68 and rainfall amounts under a tenth of an inch. Thursday brings a 50 percent chance of showers and storms with a high near 86, and Friday climbs to 60 percent near 83. That Thursday night number is the one to watch if you are planning to look up for the eclipse.

Set an alarm, or just plan on being up.

Late Thursday night the moon slides almost entirely into Earth's shadow, and from here it should come out the color of an old penny. The penumbral stage begins at 9:24 PM on Thursday, Aug. 27, when the moon enters the faint outer edge of the shadow. That part is subtle enough to miss if you are not watching for it.

The partial eclipse — the part worth staying up for — starts at 10:34 PM, when the moon crosses into the darker inner shadow and a bite appears out of one side. By 11:15 PM about half of it is covered. The eclipse peaks at 12:13 AM Friday morning with 96.3 percent of the moon in shadow, which WXII expects will make it look mostly crimson or copper rather than white.

No eye protection is needed. Unlike a solar eclipse, a lunar one is safe to look at directly, and no telescope is required — the color shows up with nothing but your eyes. A dark yard away from a porch light helps more than any equipment would.

The catch is the sky itself. The National Weather Service puts Thursday night at a 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, so the clouds get a vote. If they cooperate, it is worth the late bedtime: the next total lunar eclipse visible over North Carolina is not until June 26, 2029.

Read more

The car came out of the water on Friday. By Monday it had a name attached to it.

Kernersville police obtained arrest warrants on Monday for Logan Michael Milstead, 24, of Emerywood Court, in connection with the Piney Grove Road hit-and-run we have now written about twice. As of Tuesday he had not been taken into custody, and the investigation is still open.

The charges are heavier than the phrase hit-and-run suggests. Milstead faces four felony counts: two counts of hit-and-run with injury, one count of altering, stealing or destroying criminal evidence, and one count of obstructing justice. The misdemeanor list runs longer and includes failure to report an accident, driving while license revoked following an impaired-driving revocation, and no liability insurance.

Here is what investigators say happened on Aug. 17. About 1:40 PM, in the 700 block of Piney Grove Road, a vehicle left the roadway and came to rest in a wooded area. Two men inside were hurt, and Forsyth County EMS took both to a local hospital with injuries described as not life-threatening. The red Honda also sideswiped a privately owned activity bus before leaving the scene. No passengers were aboard the bus.

The Honda surfaced on Friday, when a fisherman spotted it submerged near a boat launch in the 8600 block of Belews Creek Road. Anyone with information about the wreck or about where Milstead is now is asked to call the Kernersville Police Department at 336-996-3177 or Crime Stoppers at 336-727-2800.

Read more

This is not one we can send you to, but it is worth knowing who is in the neighborhood.

NASA astronaut Christina Koch speaks at North Carolina A&T State University on Thursday morning, about half an hour down the road. The College of Engineering is hosting her from 10 to 10:45 AM in Room 244 of the Harold L. Martin Sr. Engineering Research and Innovation Complex, 1101 E. Market St.

Before anyone starts the car: the university is hosting this one for students, faculty, staff and invited guests. A&T has not posted a registration link or a livestream, so we would not count on walking in. We are flagging it because of who she is, not because there is a seat waiting.

Koch holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman, 328 days aboard the International Space Station, and she took part in the first all-female spacewalk. Across six spacewalks she has logged 42 hours and 15 minutes outside. In April she flew on Artemis II, which launched on the first of the month and splashed down off San Diego on April 10 after carrying its crew 252,756 miles from home — the first time humans have traveled to the vicinity of the Moon in more than fifty years. N.C. State, her alma mater, describes her as the first woman to leave low Earth orbit and the first woman to travel to and around the Moon.

She is closer to a local than you might expect. Koch was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, but grew up in Jacksonville, North Carolina, attended the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics in Durham, and earned two bachelor's degrees and a master's at N.C. State. Before NASA she wintered over at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. On Monday N.C. State renamed Engineering Building II in her honor — it is now Christina Hammock Koch Hall.

Read more

Nine sacks is not really a stat line. It is a weather report.

Walkertown opened its football season with a 47-0 shutout of visiting Atkins. The game was played on Thursday, Aug. 20 — it had been scheduled for Friday and was moved up a day because of predicted heavy rain, the same forecast that shuffled the Kernersville openers we covered last week.

The Wolfpack scored in every quarter, putting up 14 in the first, 19 in the second, 6 in the third and 8 in the fourth. Running back Nasir Conrad carried 12 times for 125 yards and three touchdowns. Quarterback Kai Tart completed 8 of 14 passes for 122 yards and a passing touchdown, and EJ Archie added a touchdown on the ground.

The defense is where the number jumps out. Walkertown recorded nine sacks and kept Atkins off the board entirely. Atkins quarterback T. Long finished 7 of 17 for 53 yards with three interceptions.

Walkertown is not a Kernersville school, but it is our county and our school district, and a 47-0 opener travels. The Wolfpack are at Parkland on Friday at 7 PM. Parkland is 1-0 as well, having beaten Carver 35-0 in its own opener, so that one should tell us considerably more.

Read more