Something that you will only see this life....

[nikonsiao]

Hi Fellow Clubsnappers,

The Red Planet (MARS) 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. By August 27, Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. 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.

 

[tokrot]

Hi Fellow Clubsnappers,

The Red Planet (MARS) 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. By August 27, Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. 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.

I am not very sure but I think this so called Mars being Close to Earth was happened few years back already? That time was what you are saying now, the Mars was nearest to Earth that time and would not be anymore the next few thousand years later...

Dun mind can provide link source??? :sweat: I am getting confused.. :dunno:

 

[eikin]

errr ... the last time the scientists said that was prolly around 2 to 3 years back? can't really remember. sometimes i wonder what these scientists are trying to prove anyway, the last time they mentioned it in the news i saw that bright red spark in the sky, quite nice, but nothing too spectacular really if you don't have a telescope.

 

[Drudkh]

auspicious day.

 

[sumball]

errr ... the last time the scientists said that was prolly around 2 to 3 years back? can't really remember. sometimes i wonder what these scientists are trying to prove anyway, the last time they mentioned it in the news i saw that bright red spark in the sky, quite nice, but nothing too spectacular really if you don't have a telescope.

Ask Wai for one.

Two years ago, ppl are crazy taking photos of it? Go Bedok Reservoir, here and there... saw the red dot beside the moon only, nothing much though they said I can expect TWO MOONS.

 

[gnail]

By August 27, Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. Mars will be easy to spot.

As large as the full moon to the naked eye???? This is simply IMPOSSIBLE. Mars is way too far and small in size to appear in that size.

The last time Mars had a closest approach was this date, but 2 YEARS AGO, in 2003.

Is this some War of the Worlds scare or wat?

 

[Drudkh]

wonder where's the source? :think:

 

[nikonsiao]

I am not very sure but I think this so called Mars being Close to Earth was happened few years back already? That time was what you are saying now, the Mars was nearest to Earth that time and would not be anymore the next few thousand years later...

Dun mind can provide link source??? :sweat: I am getting confused.. :dunno:

got this info from my company mail box..so i post here to share share... as indicated in the email, Mars is going to be this close to earth. from what i understand, due to each planet's orbit, the path of Earth and Mars will be the closest this august. let's hope this info is true and pray we can take some nice nice swee swee photos of mars....

Maybe someone who has experience in taking photos of planets comment on this?

 

[Drudkh]

i think this was in 2003, old news?
did a search in google and found this

http://www.space.com/spacewatch/mars_preview_021108.html

 

[Del_CtrlnoAlt]

hahaha... tat proves how effective nikonsiao's email system...

but den... all of us could be wrong here...

 

[eikin]

Ask Wai for one.

Two years ago, ppl are crazy taking photos of it? Go Bedok Reservoir, here and there... saw the red dot beside the moon only, nothing much though they said I can expect TWO MOONS.

2 moons? :bigeyes: :bsmilie: whoever told you that has a really bad sense of scale.

actually to really appreciate it one has to go into dark areas with almost no urban light polution, and then one will see how spectacular it looks against the thousands of little stars. when i saw it i was still in AMK, looking at it between the roofs of 2 HDB flats, you can guess why i thought it was only so-so :bsmilie:

 

[jsbn]

Nikonsiao, I think u tio dua liao...

Its gonna be nice, but not like 2003... ;p

Reference URL: http://space.about.com/od/astronomynews/a/marsclose2005.htm
Will We See a Record Approach
Date: 6/16/05

Take a look in the night sky.

Does the Red Planet, Mars, seem bigger than last night?

Well, you'd probably need extremely good eyes to actually tell, but if you said yes, you'd be right. Each night, Mars is getting closer to Earth (by about 23,500 mph). It will reach it's closest point on this trip on Halloween night.

It is possible you've received an email which says that Mars closest to Earth in August in 50,000 years. Sorry, that was 2 years ago, you're reading a recycled email. This year's closest approach will be October, and although it will be spectacular, it is not a record breaker.

So, why are we getting closer to Mars? Imagine two cars on a race track. If one is closer to the center of the track and traveling faster, it will eventully catch up to and pass the outer car.

Those of us who simply enjoy looking up at the night sky are not the only ones interested in Mars' close approach. NASA is planning to launch the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) on August 10th, 2005. It will take over 6 months for the orbiter to reach the Red Planet. This timing will allow MRO to overtake Mars and arrive in March 2006. Once it enters orbit it starts a 2-year mission to map Mars in great detail. The MRO has high-resolution cameras which can spot objects as as small as 1 meter or less. It will use a RADAR sounder to search for water and spectrometers to look for minerals.The orbiter will also help us learn more about Mars weather aptterns.

On Halloween night, 2005, it will rise at sunset and hang overhead through most of the night. So, grab a sky map and start watching the approach of Mars, then enjoy the big show on October 31.

2nd URL Ref: http://www.earthsky.com/skywatching/marsbrightest.php
We have been getting a lot of questions about an email that has been making rounds. It looks something like this: "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....Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye...That's pretty convenient to see something that no human being has seen in recorded history....etc." This email has been circulating, as it did last year and the year before. It was somewhat misleading when it first made the rounds in 2003. Mars was closest to Earth in August of that year. It appeared as a very bright reddish "star;" very beautiful, but not as large as a full moon to the naked eye. Mars never has and never will appear as large as the moon, when seen from Earth. Mars is close every two years. It'll be close this year in November. The chart above shows Mars on November 7, the date that the red planet reaches its opposition (or when the Earth will be directly between it and the sun.) It'll be slightly more distant this year than in 2003, but, the difference in brightness between this year and 2003 should be negligible. You can see it shining strong in the east after sunset every evening in November.

When things like that happen, google is ur best friend.

 

[roygoh]

Maybe that email has been sitting in the inbox for 2 years...

By the way not sure how the "fact" about Mars appearing as large as the moon originated, but that is totally impossible unless the solar system is collapsing.

Mars has a diameter (6794 km) about 1.8 times the diameter of the moon (3734 km). To appear as large as the moon as viewed from Earth it would have to be as close as twice the distance from Earth as the Moon.

The Moon is about 384400 km from the Earth, so Mars would have to be closer than 768800 km from the Earth. The average ditance of Mars from the sun is 227 936 640 km and the average distance of Earth from the sun is 149 597 890 km, so the closest distance between Earth and Mars should be in the order of 70 million km which is about 100 times the distance which will make Mars appear as big as the Moon from Earth.

 

[jsbn]

IF Mars can get as big as the moon, something's seriously wrong liao.

 

[sumball]

Here one of the image of the Mars taken by Starman 2 years ago.

http://forums.clubsnap.org/showthread.php?t=42795&highlight=mars

There are many star watch then...

 

[hongsien]

Could this be the reason I am getting sleepness nights these few weeks? It is getting worse and worse..........are 'they' coming here to get me? Women's monthly cycles are affected by the moon, is mine affected by Mars?????

Hong Sien

 

[sumball]

IF Mars can get as big as the moon, something's seriously wrong liao.

I can see it outside Luke Skywalker' house at Tattoine.;p

 

[eikin]

Here one of the image of the Mars taken by Starman 2 years ago.

http://forums.clubsnap.org/showthread.php?t=42795&highlight=mars

There are many star watch then...

Wai, where's yours? show leh, how come no more link to your gallery?

 

[sumball]

Could this be the reason I am getting sleepness nights these few weeks? It is getting worse and worse..........are 'they' coming here to get me? Women's monthly cycles are affected by the moon, is mine affected by Mars?????

Hong Sien

You should know it yourself better than we do... consult your doc.

 

[hongsien]

You should know it yourself better than we do... consult your doc.

I don't trust my doctor.....he could be one of 'them', coming here from Mars to get me!

HS