Mars at Opposition - Earth at Transitition

chuckpeters writes "An astronaut friend told us about how the nuts out there seem to think that Mars is going to collide with the earth or the moon, or the gravitational forces are going to rip the earth apart or cause massive earthquakes. While in a co-workers office listening to a co-worker take a call about the possibility of such calamities, our astronaut friend yelled "Quick, duck! It's Mars"! No longer welcome in that office, he's back worshiping launch complex 39A. The true gravity of the situation is much less benign. The fact is I have never seen Mars look so bright or red as the other night, it's definitely time to gaze at the red planet. NASA isn't going to be worrying about Mars colliding with Earth, but they will be keeping a close eye on Mars. During this close approach, NASA will be inviting the public to help decide what areas on the red planet to photograph." More information below about the unique position of the red planet - take advantage of this once-in-a-3x-lifetime event.

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."

Comments

Martians!

[miknight]

Finally I will be able to peer into craters that house the martians. I hope they're as attactive as Amy of Futurama...

well,

[waitigetit]

I, for one, welcome our new Martian overlords.

or something...

Makes me smile.

[CGP314]

This special event takes place because of the specific positions of Mars and Earth in their orbits.

I love sentences like that. Mars will be the closest to Earth it's ever been, because Mars will be the closest to Earth it's ever been!

Re:Makes me smile.

[aborchers]

You paraphrased

This special event takes place because of the specific positions of Mars and Earth in their orbits.

as

Mars will be the closest to Earth it's ever been, because Mars will be the closest to Earth it's ever been.

Am I missing something? That's not how the sentence reads to me. It says that the distance will be small because of a rare coincidence of the orbital positions of Mars and Earth, specifically Mars at perihelion and opposition simultaneously. In other words, the orbital geometry leads to a relatively small physical separation.

Of course, I couldn't find this at all in the basic post, so I assume it is in one of the linked items. Perhaps there is some additional context...

Mars?

[Pig Hogger]

I hear they gonna deep-fry it in Scotland.

The pyramids

[shione]

10bux and free beer, that most people vote for the face and pyramids. I want to see a martian looking back at me through his telescope.

For an interesting read on the Face on Mars, I recommend the books by Graham Hancock. He doesn't actually say in his book that aliens built it or make any wild assumptions/conclusions but he does investigate it in a professional manner built solely on science and photographs and correspondence with reliable people working in NASA.

blackout?

[Barbarian]

Another blackout would be nice about now.

Re:blackout?

[the uNF cola]

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.

Retrograde motion

[Capt'n Hector]

Just to clear something up in the post, retrograde motion won't affect viewing at all. In fact, the only way someone could detect retrograde motion would be to take very precise measurements over a few days. It's not as if mars or any other planet moves opposite the stars on any given night. But this is slashdot, you all knew that.

You mean it's not When Worlds Collide?

[putaro]

Crap, that means I have to junk the giant ski jump and space craft I've been building in the backyard. At least I had the satisfaction of putting together my list of who gets to go and who gets to stay behind.

Even cheapskates like me can see the disc.

[Glytch]

On a whim, I pointed my cheap 2 megapixel/no optical zoom digital camera towards Mars, and I was astonished to find that I could actually make out the disc of the planet. I'm hoping I can pay off my layaway for a 3MP/10x optical camera before Mars gets too far away.

Re:Even cheapskates like me can see the disc.

[planet_hoth]

If you weren't using a telephoto lens or a telescope or something else to magnify the image, then it probably wasn't the actual disc you were resolving. It was probably just the excess light from Mars "bleeding" onto adjacent detectors on the surface of the camera's CCD. Or maybe the camera had trouble focusing?

For comparison, I have a 2 megapixel camera with 3x optical zoom, and when I hook it up to my 3.5" newtonian telescope, the disc is still tiny. You really need a telescope or a serious telephoto lens to be able to resolve the disc.

Re:Even cheapskates like me can see the disc.

[Idarubicin]

Dawes' limit for resolution (separation of two point light sources) is:

theta = 115.8 / D

Where theta is the resolvable angle in seconds of arc and D is the objective lens diameter in millimetres.

At its closest, Mars' angular size will be a hair more than a giant 25". If your camera lens is more than five millimetres in diameter (probable), then you might be able to begin making claims about seeing a non-point. Mind, you've also got to have very good optics to claim diffraction-limited resolution.

Still, it doesn't take much. A good pair of small binocs will show a small but visible disc. (I've a pair of 7x42s that I'm quite happy with.)

If you want to see any features--not just a blob--you're going to need a telescope. The south polar ice cap, along with some dark features at more temperate latitudes, are observable in my mother's eight inch (200 mm) reflector.

Fun gravity calculations

[DrXym]

Click here to see how much gravitational effect Mars will have. Basically, a neglible amount.

I bet that won't stop the wackos getting worked up into a lather. After all, astrologers and their ilk have never let facts, figures or even reality get in the way before now, so it's doubtful they'll start any time soon.

Look carefully..

[adeyadey]

If your eyesight is good you can see this..

Close?

[LooseChanj]

This approach will be only 12,000 miles closer than one in 1924.

It's nice to see people taking an interest, but c'mon...Viking took better pictures.

Re:Close?

[MrPink2U]

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).

You don't need a great telescope...

[Nice2Cats]

...to see at least one feature: The ice cap at the (uh) South Pole. I have a rather inexpensive, no-name type that my wife bought me on sale -- no frills like counterweights or what the real ones have, and it shakes like crazy when you try to focus -- but after spending about half an hour fumbling along in the darkness at three in the morning, there it was. Beautiful.

One poster mentioned software for star gazing. Go with kstars by Jason Harris et al. Cool graphics, neat features, and the next version will control your telescope for you (if your telescope supports this, of course, unless your computer has SkyNet support). Part of the KDE desktop.

What fooling around with telescopes has taught me is how unbelievably limited our general education is. Consider yourself well educated? Well then. Go out and look up at the Moon tonight -- you've seen it hundreds, thousands of times, right? Now name the features. Which is the Sea of Tranquility? Where is Tycho (now that is really easy)? Even worse are the stars: Yes, you can find the Polar Star (Australians and Neu Zealanders are excused), but then? Name ten stars, any ten stars.

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...

Re:You don't need a great telescope...

[avrincianu]

Acrux, Alcor, Zeta Ursa Major, Alcyone, Alya (double star), Antares, Izar, Menkent, Polaris, Pollux, Prima and Secunda Giedi, Sadr, Vega. More than 10 :D.

[shameless plug] If you're curious to see how they look like, go here: Some pictures of deep space objects [/shameless plug]

But I think you are right. The level of general education decreases over time. People read less (I know people that don't remember when was the last time they opened a non-techhie book). They use odd source of information and believe all the crap that's fed into their brains through the tv sceen or (some) websites (see the hoax: "Conspiracy Theory: Did we actually land on the moon ?" -- I don't remember the address, but a google search wil reveal it).

And I don't play Quake. I play Orbiter Space Flight Simulator. It's the sort of serious fun that makes you learn some physics and remember some of the math you've forgotten, let alone the joy of flying the Discovery to Jupiter (you know, 2001 - A Space Odyssey) or of a "short" trip to Mars, just to celebrate the occasion (less fuel burn :D).

Re:You don't need a great telescope...

[Lumpy]

no you dont need a great telescope but it make a HUGE difference if you have a telescope with decent optics.

The funny part is that most people spend about $300.00 - $400.00 on a piece of crap department store or camera shop telescope while something that will amaze them but doesn't have useless things like gear drives and other electronics is available for around the same price.

a Dobsonian telescope with a 6 inch aperature from Orion telescopes is about $350.00

an 8 inch version will take your breath away, while a 10 inch or larger will blow your mind.

I have sat next to the guy with the $1400.00 Meade autoguided telescope and had people comment that my el-cheapo fully manual 8 inch dobsonian was tons clearer and brighter than the other guys expensive scope.

plus I was unpacked and looking 10 minutes after I arrived. it took him 45 minutes to align and setup his scope.

More $$$ does not equal better in telescopes.

Re:You don't need a great telescope...

[jafuser]

[...] and the next version will control your telescope for you (if your telescope supports this, of course, unless your computer has SkyNet support).

D'oh! So that's how it starts! Robotic telescopes will someday evolve to take over and destroy us all!

Quick! Lets burn down the observatory so this never happens!

We've been lucky this year.

[hndrcks]

For those of you who viewed the last good opposition a few years back, you may remember the dust storms that kicked up and obscured just about all surface features. The dust storms are all too common this time of 'year' on Mars, but they seem to be holding off. I got a great view of Syrtis Major and the southern polar cap last week.

Of course, after you drag the scope outside and view Mars, point that thing a little further north and west and catch Uranus and Neptune too! (Ok, hold the jokes about our seventh planet.)

aliens and earth

[abhisarda]

Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us.

Re:aliens and earth

[osu-neko]

One assumes then they aren't capitalists, otherwise they'd be falling over themselves to open trade with a planet where there's a sucker born every minute. (That saying it old -- with today's population and birth rates, there's one born every 8 seconds.)

So from the lack of contact, we can deduce that the aliens are (a) intelligent and (b) commie bastards. :)

Re:Linux on the desktop

[aborchers]

It's a once 4000000000000000000000xlifetimes experiance.

That depends on whether you're looking forward or back to count your lifetimes. It will be closer in 2287 than it is this time.

What were they thinking?

[JonTurner]

"NASA will be inviting the public to help decide what areas on the red planet to photograph."

Why? NASA asking the public for advice about planetary exploration is like, well, Nerds asking Slashdot for relationship advice.

Re:What were they thinking?

[Jerf]

It's more like NBA forwards asking Slashdot for relationship advice.

"Don't commit sexual assault?"

(OK, he's a guard, not a forward, but I think you get my point.) ;-)

Re:The Face

[SEWilco]

How many photographs will be enough?
http://www.msss.com/education/edprog.html

Overhyped "once-in-a-lifetime" statements

[dpbsmith]

Oh, come on. Mars is in opposition every couple of years. Does anyone think it will look THAT much bigger and brighter subtending 25.1 seconds this year than it did in Jun 2001 subtending 20.5 seconds?

And if you do care about sitting in the front row of the theatre instead of two rows back, well, Mars is in opposition near the point where the two orbits are closest every 15 or 16 years or so. In August of 1971 it subtended 24.8 seconds of arc.

This once-in-60000-years or whatever is a silly technicality. There will be one magic bit of time lasting--how long?--when it will set the Guinness record for closest approach in umpty-thousand years but your view of it will depend a lot more on the weather and the local street lighting and whether your neighbor's tree is in the way.

It's a great time to look up and see Mars looking so nice bright and red. Or, at least, distinctly orangish to a middle-aged eyeball who can barely detect a difference in color between Vega and Arcturus. And if you have any kind of telescope, you really should run out to your nearest schoolyard and point it at that bright orangy star in the southeast.

But almost equally good opportunities occur every couple of years.

"Have you heard/About the stars/Next July we collide with Mars/Well, did you evah?/What a swell party this is!"--Cole Porter

Re:Overhyped "once-in-a-lifetime" statements

[spaceyhackerlady]

Oh, come on. Mars is in opposition every couple of years. Does anyone think it will look THAT much bigger and brighter subtending 25.1 seconds this year than it did in Jun 2001 subtending 20.5 seconds?

Something I've pointed out many times is that while Mars is indeed closer than it was for the 2001 opposition, and, yes, marginally closer than it has been in a very long time, the view isn't all that hot for us Northern folks, because it's quite low in the sky, down in Aquarius. The last opposition was worse, even before the dust storms.

While Mars won't be quite as big at the next (2005) opposition, it will be much higher in the sky (Aries), and the view won't be as badly compromised by the atmosphere. I'll be ready.

I saw a report on the local news last night that originated with CNN. The illustrations were all Hubble pictures. I wish they would, once in a while, use pictures more representative of what you would actually see looking through a telescope. If I had a penny for every time somebody had looked through my telescope (a 5" Synta refractor), sniffed, and said "Is that it?"...

...laura

Take a Moment...

[intrinsicchaos]

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?

Re:The Face

[gilroy]

Blockquoth the poster:

even more reason to photograph the area again to settle it once and for all

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.

There are stars and planets in the sky?

[dbleoslow]

Mars would have to be about 5 feet away for me to spot it with all the artificle light where I live in Tokyo.

When asked where I want to go for my vacation coming up, all I can say is, "Somewhere away from the city where I can see the night sky."

Re:An astronaut friend

[Anonymous Coward]

No they won't.

id software employees . . .

[mr_luc]

. . . SIT DOWN.

Carmack is cool, but he ain't an astronaut . . . yet. :)

Earthquakes

[Anonymous Coward]

"An astronaut friend told us about how the nuts out there seem to think that Mars is going to collide with the earth or the moon, or the gravitational forces are going to rip the earth apart or cause massive earthquakes."

We had a 7.2 earthquake here in southern New Zealand four days ago -- I need no further proof that mars is trying to kill us all.


http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?story ID =3519390&thesection=news&thesubsection=general

Re:Overhyped? So what!

[NemesisStar]

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'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 /. 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.

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.

Mars at Opposition

[Aspasia13]

Why does Mars always have to keep opposing us? Can't we all just get along?

overheard...

[n0mad6]

...at a packing store mid last week man (at counter): Its really hot out there today. woman (customer): Yes, it really is! man: I heard that its because Mars is so close to Earth these days woman: oh, really? man: yeah, you know, because the sky...its really big... witness could bear to hear no more at this point.

Re:Collisions with Mars?

[valkraider]

What about poor Mars? What if something collided with Earth while it was this close to Mars? Couldn't it send fragments of Earth close to Mars? Has anyone considered that possibility?

Would "fragments of earth" that have been processed into spacecraft and landers and hurdled towards Mars be cause enough for alarm?

Curmudgeonly "what's-the-big-deal" statements

[Unknown Kadath]

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

Re:coming or going?

[2short]

Theoretically, an orbiting body not affected by some mass other than its primary is not going to escape, and it's not going to "spiral in" unless it is under drag. In a sufficiently pure theoretical abstraction, ALL orbits are perfect.

Non-theoretically, there is drag on the planets, but it is so incredibly miniscule we can safely ignore it. (think about how many inches the moon has to move away from us to make any difference at all). So we're down to being affected by other masses. The planets (particularly the gas giants) mess with each others orbits sufficiently that the existence of the outermost planets was detected by noticing the deviations before they were observed. Add in minor disturbances from smaller masses (comets, etc.) passing through, and it becomes very difficult to exactly calculate where everything will be a very long way in the future. Note I say "exactly". None of these disturbances makes much of a big difference. It's a pretty ridiculously small chance that anything will escape short of the sun going nova (at which point probably everything will escape that doesn't get incinerated). THe chances of a collision (between planets) before the sun goes away look ridiculously small even in comparison to the ridiculously small chances of an escape. Relatively speaking, the planets are small, and the space they're moving in is just insanely vast.