quote: On August 27, the planet Mars will be closer to Earth than it has been in more than 50,000 years. To celebrate this once-in-a-lifetime event, The Planetary Society is declaring to the world that August 27, 2003 be Mars Day.
end quote.
This subject was broached before, and resulted in the poster being banned for lifting copyrighted material.
I think the subject deserves another thread – I just walked outside and witnessed Mars. She is quite beautiful, I tell you.
It is VERY clear as a beautiful yellow/orange star by our moon. Amazing, and the only time we will ever witness the sight (the next passing is waayyy out there).
I’ve seen Mars before, and I know what it looks like, but…
Who put that humungous pink jewel in the sky last night? :eek: :eek: :eek:
Hoping for some more clear skies now that I’ve remembered where I put my binoculars. I mean, I’ve known for years that Mars can occasionally outshine Jupiter, but actually seeing it… and if I hadn’t happened to see the Moon shining in through the glass door just before going to bed, I probably wouldn’t even have stepped out for a look.
green_bladder, where are you? I can’t imagine where you’d be where it wouldn’t be visible, unless you’re in maximum security, or possibly northern Siberia…
Just FYI, altho it is the brightest in ~60,000 years, its only like 1% brighter than the last time it was close (~10? ~20? years ago)
I did take out my 8 inch Orion deep space explorter last night. probably 45min or so total viewing, mostly at 122x. Tried different filters too. Definitely made out the polar cap. May have made out other features or may have been my imagination.
Just got back from the star party. About 50 or so people and 9 or 10 scopes, including my 4.5" reflector dob. Lots of great views. One guy had a scope magnifying at 340x - and it still looked good and bright! Another one had a similar scope pumping the image out to a hi-resolution closed circuit TV.
By the way, if you’ve got a good enough view to see surface features, check here on the Sky and Telescope magazine web site for a neat little JavaScript widget that shows you what part of Mars you’re looking at.