# Mars and the moon **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 16, 2003, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mars-and-the-moon/195533 "2003-08-16T03:25:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dauerbach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c2a13f/32.png) [@dauerbach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dauerbach)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2003, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mars-and-the-moon/195533/1 "2003-08-16T03:25:02Z")
Something is happening soon with Mars and the Moon is supposed to happen sometime soon. A conjunction occured in July, but I can find nothing about some phenomenon in August. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2003, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mars-and-the-moon/195533/2 "2003-08-16T03:37:18Z")
Go to your favorite search engine and type “Mars August 2003” without the quotes and you should come up with some hits. ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2003, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mars-and-the-moon/195533/3 "2003-08-16T04:07:07Z")
I don´t know about the Moon, but Mars is getting very close, next 28th it will be on it´s closest approach since the last 73000 years, so, go out and take a look ´cuse you ain´t gonna see that again. 😃 A few days ago I went outside and took some pictures with my digital camera of both, Mars and the Moon; check [THIS ONE](http://www.elale.net/images/Luna%26Marte.jpg) to see the relative sizes of Mars and the Moon; the planet wasn´t so near the Moon, I edited the picture. Also the lenses were a bit dirty so there are some auras around the edges. ---
**Author:** ![dauerbach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c2a13f/32.png) [@dauerbach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dauerbach)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2003, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mars-and-the-moon/195533/4 "2003-08-16T04:08:33Z")
Yep, that did it. It was the moon reference that screwed up my search. Evidently there was a circulating e-mail compairing the relative brightness of mars and the moon in late august, but the bottom line is that it will be larger and brighter in appearance than any other time in the last 60K years. ---
**Author:** ![JCThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/dc4da7/32.png) [@JCThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JCThunder)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2003, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mars-and-the-moon/195533/5 "2003-08-16T05:08:16Z")
I was just taking a look at it myself. You can see it in Chicago rising from the East (Slightly south) & make it’s way West through the sky. The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287, so take a look. ---
**Author:** ![h.sapiens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e0b2c6/32.png) [@h.sapiens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/h.sapiens)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2003, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mars-and-the-moon/195533/6 "2003-08-16T12:48:32Z")
[Here’s](http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/news/index.html) the Bad Astronomer’s article on the Mars opposition. He also mentions that a few people seem to have the idea that Mars will get to be as big as the full moon. Obviously, not even close. It’s a nice article, though (as usual). ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2003, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mars-and-the-moon/195533/7 "2003-08-16T17:35:27Z")
For anything but the Sun and Moon (and of course coments) to show a disk, even a pinhead-at-twenty-feet size disk, to the naked eye, is extremely rare. Venus at inferior conjunction of course does – but its dark side faces us, for obvious reasons. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Griffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@The\_Griffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Griffin)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2003, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mars-and-the-moon/195533/8 "2003-08-16T17:37:41Z")
Jupiter is almost always visible in the sky and is clearly not a star.