Catch it if you can

Chicago Suntimes ^ | 08/26/03

[KevinDavis]

Take a close look. Tonight, before you go to bed or, if you happen to wake up Wednesday before dawn, peer into the Southeast sky. The bright orangish yellow dot--brighter than all the stars--is Mars, and eight minutes before 5 a.m. it will pass closer to Earth than it has been in 60,000 years. Mars will be 34,646,437 miles away, almost half of its usual 60 million miles.

Feel free to yearn. The Red Planet is the next logical step in humanity's exploration of space, and while we have balked about the risk and expense of a manned journey to Mars, it should be pointed out that none of the issues supposedly shortchanged by the Apollo program--from poverty to world hunger--has been solved in the absence of an expensive space mission.

"Is there life on Mars?'' is asked again and again by scientists and singers, as if the merest fossil of an ancient microbe might soothe our cosmic loneliness. And maybe it would.

Mars will not return this close for another 284 years. We will all be dead by then, and our children will be dead, and our grandchildren will be dead. But our great-grandchildren could still be around--if all goes well--and Mars will still be there, whether trod by human feet or not. It may still hold out its promise of life, of companionship, and remind us that for all the splendors of this good Earth, it is only the doorway to a greater, uncharted, as-yet-ungrasped cosmos, of which Mars is the closest planetary speck.

[KevinDavis]

I think this editorial is right on, I'm sure there are others however there like this, however this short and simple.

[KevinDavis]

Space Ping! This is the space ping list! Let me know if you want on or off this list!

[Brett66]

I could make out the polar caps and the darker equatorial regions with my 4.5" Newtonian 3 weeks ago. Guess I'll give it another look in the next couple of days.

[King Prout]

I wasn't planning on going outside and doing a John Carter impression, but why not?

[RightWhale]

Mars will not return this close for another 284 years

Considerably sooner than 60,000 years like last time. Not that the change of distance to Mars is particularly significant as far as travel there is concerned.

[Michael Barnes]

Can you add me to your list?

[KevinDavis]

You have been added..

[billorites]

I saw the Brian DePalma movie Mission to Mars starring Gary Sinese a couple years ago.

As far as I can tell, Mars sucks. I don't want to got there.

[KevinDavis]

Well I do.. Fine you can stay here and let us go to Mars.

[xJones]

Thanks, I hadn't heard of this. I'll trudge my weary bod out in about 7 hours from now and take a look.

[Verginius Rufus]

After this hoopla, the average American will have the impression that Mars will not be visible again in his or her lifetime. There will be another opposition in a couple of years...Mars will be bright, just not quite as bright as this time.

Observers in the 19th century, before smog and electric lights, would have seen a Mars at opposition that looked brighter than we can see now (except perhaps a lucky few who can get to places where the sky is exceptionally clear) even if not officially quite as bright as this time.

Venus has been officially an evening star since last week, but is still too close to the sun to be visible...when it gets further from the sun in the sky it will outshine Mars.

[P.O.E.]

I have the telescope out on the porch. It is quite a beautiful sight.

[Scenic Sounds]

Reminder. (Thanks for having reminded me.) ;-)

[Ronin]

Space Bump!

It's cloudy today -- DRATS!!! But I will keep an eye out anyhow.

[billorites]

"Fine you can stay here and let us go to Mars."

OK. Have a safe trip.

But I'm not watching your cat.

[Gigantor]

Take us to see the Martians, daddy!

[lawdude]

"We will all be dead by then,"

Speak for yourself. I have plans!

[Husker8877]

Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Mars) will be so excited! She can visit her relatives next to the flag the astronauts planted up there!

[Saundra Duffy]

We will all be dead by then, and our children will be dead, and our grandchildren will be dead.

Sheeeeesh.

[GATOR NAVY]

Observers in the 19th century, before smog and electric lights, would have seen a Mars at opposition that looked brighter than we can see now (except perhaps a lucky few who can get to places where the sky is exceptionally clear)...

I'd sure like to see this from out at sea-it's pretty dark when you're hundreds of miles from the nearest lights. But I'm on shore duty, living smack in the middle of one the most lit-up areas on Earth. Planets are usually all I see now, with the occasional first magnatude star.