Mark your calendar

Mars
The Red Planet is about to be spectacular!

This month and next, Earth is catching up with Mars in an encounter that will culminate in the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history. The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287. Due to the way Jupiter's gravity tugs on Mars and perturbs its orbit, astronomers can only be certain that Mars has not come this close to Earth in the Last 5,000 years, but it may be as long as 60,000 years before it happens again.

The encounter will culminate on August 27th when Mars comes to within 34,649,589 miles of Earth and will be (next to the moon) the brightest object in the night sky. It will attain a magnitude of -2.9 and will appear 25.11 arc seconds wide. At a modest 75-power magnification Mars will be easy to spot. At the beginning of August it will rise in the east at 10p.m. and reach its azimuth at about 3 a.m.

By the end of August when the two planets are closest, Mars will rise at nightfall and reach its highest point in the sky at 12:30a.m. That's pretty convenient to see something that no human being has seen in recorded history. So, mark your calendar at the beginning of August to see Mars grow progressively brighter and brighter throughout the month.


Share this with your children and grandchildren. NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN. Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye .

Mars
Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye .

I hate to burst the Mars bubble, :oops: but the Mr. and I own a Meade motorized telescope and are into astronomy, and we already saw Mars at its closest in 2003. They do say it will be just as spectacular this year.

Here's the real deal taken from Nasa's web site.

July 7, 2005: Just when you thought it was safe to read your email....

There's a rumor about Mars going around the internet. Here are some snippets from a widely-circulated email message:

"The Red Planet is about to be spectacular."

"Earth is catching up with Mars [for] the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history."

"On August 27th ? Mars will look as large as the full moon."

And finally, "NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN."

Only the first sentence is true. The Red Planet is about to be spectacular. The rest is a hoax.

Here are the facts: Earth and Mars are converging for a close encounter this year on October 30th at 0319 Universal Time. Distance: 69 million kilometers. To the unaided eye, Mars will look like a bright red star, a pinprick of light, certainly not as wide as the full Moon.


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Disappointed? Don't be. If Mars did come close enough to rival the Moon, its gravity would alter Earth's orbit and raise terrible tides.

Sixty-nine million km is good. At that distance, Mars shines brighter than anything else in the sky except the Sun, the Moon and Venus. The visual magnitude of Mars on Oct. 30, 2005, will be -2.3. Even inattentive sky watchers will notice it, rising at sundown and soaring overhead at midnight.

You might remember another encounter with Mars, about two years ago, on August 27, 2003. That was the closest in recorded history, by a whisker, and millions of people watched as the distance between Mars and Earth shrunk to 56 million km. This October's encounter, at 69 million km, is similar. To casual observers, Mars will seem about as bright and beautiful in 2005 as it was in 2003.

Although closest approach is still months away, Mars is already conspicuous in the early morning. Before the sun comes up, it's the brightest object in the eastern sky, really eye-catching. If you have a telescope, even a small one, point it at Mars. You can see the bright icy South Polar Cap and strange dark markings on the planet's surface.

Most people would believe it. Those martians really know how to promote themselves :funn:

With a telescope you really can see the polar ice caps on Mars. Pretty cool. But I think the best thing I have seen with the telescope was a few years ago, when you could see Saturns rings with the telescope at around 1 am on New years Eve. It was really clear till about 3 am. My whole neighborhood and family were over and we had a party dressed like eskimoes since it was so dang COLD. I don't drink, but everyone else was pretty warm from the alcohol.

IF I believed this, it would be cool! :floor:

Which part do you not believe? :confused: The Saturn part or the no drinking part? :lol:

mango - what kind of meade do you guys have - details please. we have one too, would like to get a larger one eventually. it's so bright around here, viewing isn't the greatest.

Ooops, my bad. I for one was really getting excited and looking forward to trying to see it. Too bad they put these hoax's out there. I guess every email we ever receive we should research.
:scratch:

We have a Meade ETX-90C. It's the kind that automaticaly tracks objects across the sky with the Autostar.
It can be difficult to get it aligned properly, but once you do, you have a great night of viewing. We try to align it to the North Star, but with all the trees in our area, we usually can't find it, so we find something else we can recognize. We also use level to make sure it is perfectly flat, cause that can scew up the alighnment.

It's tough to view when surrounded by lights. I hear ya.

It gets real dark here where I am, but the trees can be a problem. Sometimes we go to an open field.
On Meade's web site they have listings for groups in your area that get together with their telescopes. We have not done that yet, but it seems like a good idea when someone buys one initially since they help people learn all the features of your tele. It can get complicated with all the different lenses. Gosh, some even have cameras that can be attached.
We don't get that intricate. We have some lenses. Some of my best viewing though has been just pointing the tele and looking around and see what I can catch like a shooting star or something.

Yep, the Perseids Meteor showers are great. Don't need a telescope for that either. :clap_1: