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Mars at Opposition - Earth at Transitition
On August 27th, Mars will be closer to Earth than in all of recorded history. The event is a rare display of orbital events in the cosmic clockwork of space. It is the chance of a lifetime for everyone to go out and see Mars and never before, and never again in our lifetimes!
The event is much more than just an opposition though because Martian oppositions occur about every 25 months.
What makes this opposition so special? This year, the Mars opposition occurs at the same time that Mars is at perihelion, which means Mars, in its orbit, is closest to the Sun and near when Earth is at aphelion (farthest point from Sun.)
At 5:51 a.m. EDT on the night of August 27, 2003, Mars will be within 34,646,418 miles (55,758,006 km) of Earth. To compare this to an earlier opposition: in 2001 when Mars was last at opposition, the red planet was more than 41 million miles (67 million km) from Earth. The most recent perihelion and opposition took place in September 1988 when Mars passed within 36.5 million miles (58.7 million km) of Earth.
When will Mars be this close to Earth again? The next, closer approach will occur on August 28, 2287 when Mars will be 34.62 million miles (55.69 million km) away. But we won't be around for that one, so you don't want to miss this close approach!
When and Where to see Mars - Best viewing is about midnight in the southern sky. One good way to find more precise viewing of Mars as well as identifying the various features, is using Xephem. We put together some tables which include local sunset times and Mars rising times for August 27th for various locations in the US, Europe, Middle East etc...
Currently Mars is moving the opposite direction from all the other planets. While the other plenets appear to be moving towards the east over time, Mars is displaying retrograde motion and moving westward.
Because Mars is so small it's difficult to see details most of the time or in small telescopes. Since Mars is going to be so much closer than usual, even a 4 inch telescope will show details not normally visible. There are also various filters you can use to enhance observing. Mars through a Telescope: Getting the Most from the Red Planet covers what equipment to use and what specific features to look for on Mars.
Although one night has been advertised as "the night" when Mars will be closest, the red planet will appear large and bright for the next few months. Mars will also be changing seasons and that means you will be able to spot changes in surface features over time. It's summer in the southern hemisphere of Mars and the south polar cap is melting rather quickly. If you observe over a period of days you will be able to see the terrain underneath the ice appear.
Go out and enjoy this cosmic show, but you needn't worry about any unexpected cosmic collisions, Mars Will Not Kill You."
You know, that is a little insensitive.
/end rant
Yeah, too bad all the people on emergency/medical devices, up 42nd floor ofices, in our 90degree weather or 15 miles from home w/o a subway would be screwed.
Not to mention people IN electrically driven devices when the power dies, such as elevators, rollercoasters, subways..
--
"I'm not bright. Big words confuse me. But Wanda loves me and that should be enough for you." - Cosmo
medical devices have backups. Hospitals have generators. You can take the stairs out of your cube farm and actually go outside for once. People in subways, elevators, etc. eventually got out.
The only person this is being insensitive to is the one person who died because of the blackout. Everyone else needs some bit of excitement.
You forget about the home stuff, the people in wheel chairs and the people who suffer in the ovens which were once subways underground, in the festering bowls of nyc.
Yeah, excitement.
--
"I'm not bright. Big words confuse me. But Wanda loves me and that should be enough for you." - Cosmo
Yes, Viking did take very nice pictures. The pictures show more detail than I could ever dream of seeing with my naked eye.
BUT looking at a picture is nothing like looking at it with my own eye(s).
All funny comments aside, it's quite a magical experience to just look up in the sky and see the Red Planet shining there. Bathed in marslight, it's a nice reminder of just how our lives and civilization itself pales into insignificance when compared with the slow but steady motions of the heavenly skies. Beautiful moment, so take off 5 minutes every night or so to stand outside and look upwards towards the stars. Nothing like it. By the way, I saw a shooting star a few days ago in the northwest sky, anyone know what's up with that?
No, this issue will never be "settled once and for all". The people who believe in the Face on Mars already believe it against photographic evidence, and they do not trust NASA. So why should they believe more proof from the "worldwide scientific conspiracy"?
Things like the Face cult are just the background noise we pay for having the ability to dream and to believe.
The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach
If you are anything like me, you know the different classes of Quake II monsters better than the Moon. Somewhere, somehow, that bothers me; but then maybe I've just been staying up too late at night...
Your post is a serious one. We should all stop and ponder what you've written here and consider it prior to loading up our next favorite game of the moment, and consider how our time may be better spent. Sure, a lot of us are getting fatter as a result of sitting around most of our lives, but we're also growing dumber, or we were dumb to begin with. Even many of us who have been to college for any length of time. But this can change. The world is so interesting, there's so much to learn and marvel at: from the smallest moving creature to the blazing sun above..and yet most of us spend more time running through imaginary worlds via games/movies, or pissing away our precious time in gossip or other petty activities. Why live life with blinders on? Oh but many of us do. The blinders take the forms of TV, gaming, gossip, etc. and place us within an imaginary world of our making, while our bodies stand cluelessly within the real world.
Life is precious, it's time to stop wasting it.
I don't care if it's overhyped or not, it's enough for me to get up off my behind and get out and enjoy the world.
/. I actually take note. That Leonid shower I got inspired at 10:30 at night rang up my friends and we got together, drove for an hour and a bit into the country and were about the only people in the southern hemisphere to see the damn things due to a VERY localised and short-lived break in the clouds. It was magical and everybody present will never forget it.
I'm privileged enough to come from a 1st world country where it is still possible to escape the city lights and see the stars properly - which is something I reckon the vast majority of slashdotters would not have experienced.
When I read about a celestial event on
The next meteor shower I went to the same place and, well, didn't see anything. But that didn't matter, because the majority of my friends were there for the leonid shower and were gaining an interest in just being outdoors and seeing the stars.
This time around, sure, it may just be a red dot in the sky, but it's the biggest this dot has been for the last 73 000 years, and well, sometimes that's just the little motivation we need to be convinced to leave our comfortable labs for an evening which will be enjoyed by all present. Except for my friend who, while watching the Matrix Reloaded, was just adding some finishing touches to his program on his laptop during the opening action scene. He'll spoil my night vision.
So in conclusion, I for one am happy for this hype and will be taking my $2 telescope out with me for a night to remember.
Of course there's always the chance that these photographs are doctored, but I doubt that it would have taken NASA this long to initiate some sort of coverup concerning the martians.
(Besides, allowing people to believe in things that seem outright ludicrous to others does more than any organised conspiracy could accomplish).
Maybe I'm overly cynical about it. The face on Mars is a freaky photo if you take it at... well... face value, but not necessarily signifigant.
Of course I'm sure everyone would like to believe in a link between martian pyramids and Giza, because that's still one of our big unsolved mysteries with results based only on hypothesis' (unless something major slipped completely by my geek radar).
Every 90 seconds, somewhere in the world, a woman is gving birth.
She must be found, and stopped.
This once-in-60000-years or whatever is a silly technicality.
So was the clock rolling over to 2000 three years back. Even though it was an artifact of the dating system, and didn't actually signify a millenium in that system, people were still out partying. We like marking biggests, bests, and firsts.
I think anything that gets people looking up at the sky is a good thing. Maybe a sense of wonder needs a kick-start in some people. If the hype surrounding this particular opposition convinces people to look up and actually see the heavens for once, in their majesty and awesome beauty, then the superlatives getting thrown around don't bother me.
You obviously don't need the help. But please don't go all sour on those who do.
Even though Mars will subtend a visually undetectably larger arc, I'm still going to be up on the roof in the boonies with my wimpy little 4" refracting 'scope to take a look at the polar caps. And I'll feel that thrill of hitting the focus just right and resolving a disc out of a distant point of light. I want other people, people who don't care about science enough to understand why any other opposition would work just as well, to know what that feels like, too. The mathematical difference between a few arc-seconds may be minute, but the emotional difference is huge.
-Carolyn
Like Daddy always said: if you can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, baffle 'em with bullshit.