Thursday, July 14, 2005

No, Mars Won't Look as Big as the Moon





"There's a new rumour going around the Internet. Maybe an excited friend has sent an email about a once in a lifetime chance to see Mars. Mars is going to make its closest approach on October 30th, 2005, and look bigger and brighter than it has in two years. Unfortunately, the closest approach actually happened two years ago, in August 2003, when the Earth and Mars were closer than they had been for 50,000 years."

Amen.
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2 comments:

Kyle said...

Mac -

It bears mentioning that even though the 2003 close approach was indeed the closest, and even though the e-mail was factually incorrect on many points, this year's approach will "only" be 13 million miles further. For a typical observer on the ground here, this difference will be undetectable.

I say this because Mars will still be the 3rd brightest object in the night sky, and will be a spectacular sight even at this distance.

People don't take enough time to appreciate and just experience the night sky and the things in it. And while the hoax is indeed a hoax, you could do worse than spend an evening watching the red planet this Halloween.

In Aug. 2003, Mars rose with the Moon in my SE sky, and slowly split off from it, becoming brighter as it moved up and away. It was obvious, not only by its brightness, but by its unmistakable striking reddish-gold color. Nothing else in the sky looks like it.

Same holds for 2005... :)

Best,

Kyle
UFOreflections.blogspot.com

8:03 PM
Mac said...

Andy--

But I only have a couple months to write the book!

WMB--

I suspect that "as large as the full Moon" was originally qualifed by "through a modest telescope."

9:44 PM

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