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Close Encounters Of The Mars Kind

Posted by timothy on from the bask-in-its-warlike-glow dept.

Lab_rat0 writes "Never again in our lifetimes will the Red Planet be so spectacular! This month and next, Earth is catching up with Mars, an encounter that will culminate in the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history. This article at EliteGeek has more details. According to Agg over at OCAU, this is probably the reason for all the Mars probes launched over the last few months."

6 of 153 comments (clear)

  1. Obligatory Zubrin post... by bc90021 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Since Mars is so close, it's a shame that more people haven't read "The Case for Mars" (see here, and no, I am not affiliated in any way), as now would be a very good time to put some of the principlesinto practise and land someone on Mars!

    --
    libertarianswag.com
  2. Don't get TOO excited... by JayBlalock · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Here's the Snopes entry on it. Essentially, while it's technically true that this is the closest pass in 60,000 years or so, to most observers there won't be any appreciable difference between this pass and the semi-close passes it makes every 15 years or so. The interest lies mainly in how this makes it more easy to launch probes. (and note the similarity in wording between the Snopes version and the post. Hmmm...)

    --
    Bush: He's Liberal in all the wrong ways.
  3. For the best amateur (MARS) pictures, go here. by deathcow · · Score: 4, Interesting
    These guys are using some of the best cameras and telescopes that amateurs can buy. (Or at least, hope to buy, since there are multi-year long waiting lists.)

    MARS 2003 Pictures

    Every year, amateurs and their techniques are improving. This team of Germans, with their Astro-Physics 10" Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope are on the cutting edge of amateur astrophography.

  4. Re:for those of us without telescopes or probes... by mahart · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Speaking of APotD here's a good composite image of Mars

    I usually only like the high-res pics that have been through a million filters to look sexy...
    APotD often has lots of grainy bland pics that are scientifically useful but not exactly great desktop material

  5. War of the Worlds by p51d007 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I think it would be great if some national radio show would rerun Orson Wells radio adaptation of the H.G. Wells classic "war of the worlds" which aired on halloween night in the 30's. For those of you who never heard it, it so panicked the east coast that most of it's residents thought the martians had invaded the world LOL

  6. No dust storms this year by p_trekkie · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Hauled out my little 8" equatorial reflector to a dark sky site Friday night and had spectacular resolution of surface features. Southern polar cap was crystal clear as were many other surface features that I can't describe very well without a map of Mars handy. That was only at 120-240x. 2 years ago, at the last opposition, I looked at Mars through a scientific grade 12" refractor, and it was just a featureless orange ball. This year is much better. The closeness aspect isn't really so much of an improvement (from an observational standpoint) as the lack of dust storms. I just hope I get a chance to point the big refractor at it again this time around.....