Slashdot Mirror
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."
Finally I will be able to peer into craters that house the martians. I hope they're as attactive as Amy of Futurama...
I, for one, welcome our new Martian overlords.
or something...
I could care less, but not without a lobotomy
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!
I hear they gonna deep-fry it in Scotland.
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.
Another blackout would be nice about now.
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.
Quid festinatio swallonis est aetherfuga inonusti?
Africus aut Europaeus?
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.
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.
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.
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.
Mix the failings of Usenet with the shortcomings of the World Wide Web and the result is slashdot.
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...
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.)
Everyone will start to cheer when you put on your sailin' shoes.
Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us.
"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.
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
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
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
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?stor
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.
Why does Mars always have to keep opposing us? Can't we all just get along?
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?