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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."
I understand it with programs like OpenOffice, but why does a simple calculator-program take several seconds to open? In Windows, Photoshop takes only sligthly longer to open than some simple card game on Linux on the same machine.
And it's not like my machine is underpowered. It's an AMD XP 2000+ with 1 GB of memory.
THE SKY IS FALLING! Run away! Run away!
Dear Lameness Filter:
I am yelling.
Pasted from http://www.madpenguin.org/
Can I help to stop SCO?
The term fraud, as defined in any garden variety dictionary, refers to the premeditated/deliberate act of deceit used in the interest of unlawful and/or unfair gain. When it comes to the SCO Group, no definition could be more fitting. As an individual, it is difficult for an individual to stand up to abuse such as this, but in strength comes in numbers.
The National Fraud Information Center, located at www.fraud.org, is an excellent sounding board for the Linux community if we use it correctly and en masse. Once this organization has information pertaining to fraudulent activity, they alert the proper local/state/federal government agencies.
We've done most of the dirty work for you so all you will have to do is simply cut and paste into the online form:
Name of Company or Individual being reported: The SCO Group
Company URL: http://www.sco.com/
Company E-Mail Address: info@sco.com
Company Address 1: 355 South 520 West
Company Address 2: Suite 100
Company City: Lindon
State/Province: UT
Zip Code: 84042
Company Phone: (801) 765-4999
Company Representative First Name: Darl
Last Name: McBride
How did you first encounter this company/individual: Other
Amount of Money Requested: 699.00
Amount of Money Actually Paid: 0.00
Date of Transaction/Initial Contact: August 5, 2003
Summary of Events: This is where, in your own words, you can describe SCO's actions against you (or even more fitting, the world). Make a good case... this is your moment to shine.
There are obviously some variables that you will have to fill in to fit your circumstances. For instance, if you need to 'license' one desktop copy of Linux, you will need to replace 699.00 with 199.00. You get the idea.
tl;dr
Has anyone seen the news, it got closer, ahh, the gravity is ripping my arms of my keyboard
Arrrrgggghhhh!
one more bar please. It's my favorite.
At midnight on the twelfth of August, a huge mass of luminous gas erupted from Mars and sped towards Earth. Across two hundred million^W^W^Wthirty million miles of void, invisibly hurtling toward us, came the first of the missiles that were to bring so much calamity to Earth. As I watched, there was another jet of gas. It was another missile, starting on its way.
Ceterum censeo subscriptionem esse delendam.
I just saw CowBovNeal!!
He's here. Live!!! *faint*
I'll never wash my eyes again.. hmm, I never wash my eyes! *DOH!*
http://www.debunkingskeptics.com/
Transitition? Now that's one that had to either be deliberate or influenced by Martians. Or is it Marsians?
We will only defeat the Martians by employing full time editors!
magical experience... For me to POOP on!