Mars looming large in evening sky

AP ^ | 8/12/03

[Mr. Mojo]

LOS ANGELES - The wandering of the planets brings Mars closer to Earth this month than at any time in nearly 60,000 years. It will be a last-chance proposition for all alive today: Mars won't be as close again until Aug. 28, 2287.

Just 34.6 million miles of space will separate the two planets on Aug. 27. If that doesn't sound close, Mars was five times as distant just six months ago.

Already, Mars has begun to loom large in the late evening sky, its rusty twinkle apparent in the southeast. For the next several weeks the fourth rock from the sun should shine brighter than any other celestial body — save the moon and Venus.

"Mars you can't miss, it's bright and red," said Myles Standish, an astronomer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Aldo Vitagliano, of the University of Naples in Italy, calculated that Mars hasn't had as close a brush with Earth since Sept. 12, 57617 B.C., when Neanderthals ruled but modern man had begun to make inroads.

J. Kelly Beatty, executive editor of Sky & Telescope, said he plans to be gazing skyward to bathe in the "Marslight" during the closest approach — 5:51 a.m. EDT on Aug. 27.

The Red Planet still will seem small: To the naked eye, Mars will have the apparent diameter of a penny seen from 500 feet away. Even though Mars is twice the size of the moon, it will be 145 times as distant.

With binoculars, or better yet a telescope, observers can start to pick out details on the planet's surface. The view from even a modest telescope should reveal the planet's southern ice cap, Beatty said.

Next week, astronomers will send radio waves from antennas on Earth that will bounce off Mars to study the terrain where one of the two NASA (news - web sites) rovers is targeted to land in January. The close proximity will improve the resolution of the radar images, said Albert Haldemann, deputy project scientist for the rover mission.

Planetariums around the world plan Mars-gazing parties beginning the evening of Aug. 26, and the Hubble Space Telescope (news - web sites) is expected to take a close-approach portrait of Mars.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Mars is up around 11pm now. Southern sky. Just over the tree line around here (we live near Chicago).

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

My husband is quite the amateur astronomer and he says that Mars is twice as big (in the telescope lens) as it usually is when he was viewing a lot over a decade ago.

[DoughtyOne]

Aldo Vitagliano, of the University of Naples in Italy, calculated that Mars hasn't had as close a brush with Earth since Sept.12, 57617 B.C., when Neanderthals
ruled but modern man had begun to make inroads.

If I remember correctly, it was the14th.  Smirk.

[DoughtyOne]

Wow, it is close...

[DoughtyOne]

The other one was closer. Great shots.

[DoughtyOne]

I could look at this stuff for hours. Way cool.

[JoeSchem]

What point on the earth will be the closest to Mars?

Good luck in finding the answer. I tried to find out months ago, because whoever is there will be the closest person to Mars ever (closer even than the Apollo astronauts). But even Guiness wasn't interested in that one.

[AppyPappy]

Can you see the flag the astroauts put there?

[RightWhale]

distinctive red glow

It looks paler than usual--less saturated color, still reddish, but more of a light orange. It's like the redness is less pronounced while we are closer.

[ngc6656]

According to quick back of the envelope calculations I just made, on Aug. 27 at 5:51 EDT, the closest point on Earth to Mars (the point on Earth where Mars would appear at the zenith) is at latitude S 15.67 deg; longitude W 143.18 deg. If my calculations are correct, the point is located in the Pacific Ocean, about 600 miles ENE of Tahiti.

[quietolong]

Close Encounters with Mars Who will be the closest. When will you be closest.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/971059/posts

[ngc6656]

Thanks for the link in post no. 31, quietolong. Good article: it cuts through the hype and mentions there was trifling difference between the current opposition of Mars and the one in 1924. That year the planet was only 13,000 miles farther away. Mars appeared to be the same magnitude of brightness then as this year; its apparent angular diameter was only 0.02 arc seconds less then than now (that small amount of difference would defy detection in any telescope with an objective lens less than 250 inches in diameter).

[GunnyHartman]

We're DOOMED I tell ya, since Mars is now so close it is only a matter of time before this guy unleashes his lludium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator on our planet!