Hi all,

Planet Mars will be the brightest in the night sky starting in August.
It will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye.
This will culminate on Aug. 27 when Mars comes within 34.65M miles of earth.
Be sure to watch the sky on Aug. 27 12:30 am.
It will look like the earth has 2 moons.
The next time Mars may come this close will be 2287.

O.k. so I'm a spotter.

Stu.

:cat: Hi there Stu.

Is 280 years the length of Mars' sedereal year?

Just curious that's all.

Cheers :right:

Evidently this is a load of b****cks.
Mars comes close every August, but has never and never will appear to be the size of the moon.
This all started when someone mis-interpretated a publication.
The original publication stated that if Mars was seen through a telescope that magnifies objects 75 times, Mars as seen through such a telescope would be the equivalent diameter in the telescope eyepiece as the full moon as seen with the naked eye (about 30 arc minutes in diameter). Mars was prominent in the news in August 2003, and thousands of people attended star parties at the Adler Planetarium and elsewhere to view Mars.
Unfortunately, this email was misunderstood, and people who didn't understand the connection between Mars as seen through the telescope and the Moon as seen with the naked eye thought that Mars would be as large as the full moon as seen with the naked eye.
Every August since then, though, the re-tooled email has been distributed and forwarded to others. At times, Mars has not even been in the sky in the various August months, the Moon was not visible on the nights stated in the email, and Mars has not been at the same distance from the Earth at those times. To help combat the spread of this email, the Adler Planetarium would like to assist our website visitors with correct information:
Mars and the Moon will be in the sky at the same time at 12:30 am on August 27, 2007 at 12:30 am. Mars will be very low in the east, and the almost-full moon will be somewhat low in the south. Mars will not be (and never has been and never will be) as large as the full moon. This is impossible and will never occur. It will appear as an orange star-like dot in the sky. Mars will not be 35 million miles from Earth at that point, as it was in 2003. In August 2007, it will be about 109 million miles from Earth. It will be seen near the bright star Aldebaran in the constellation Taurus the Bull. Since Aldebaran is of a similar colour and (that night) brightness as Mars, the two may be confused. Mars will be the slightly brighter object to the north, and Aldebaran will be the object to the south.


ZZZZZZZZ yeah I know.....I'm sad.

I'll get my coat.
Stu.

:cat: Good morning Stu.

These are interesting autopsy notes. I think the explanation is more interesting to read rather than the original details of the phenomena. :haha:

Cheers :right:

:amen: Glad you got that corrected., as you state, its a Load of BS...
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California is the leading US center for robotic exploration of the solar system ,managed by NASA...
You can pop into their web site and find out exactly whats going on in space and if desired can get on there list of events by mailing them your e-mail address...

It was good reading and a bit entertaining..