A Close Encounter with Mars!

[sneezles]

My DSs have always been fascinated with the stars and planets. They use to take classes at the Houston Museum of Natural Science when they were younger. I guess that I'm pretty keen on it too since I'm always looking for things to "watch" in the sky. Just found this info about Mars so thought I'd share for any other astronomy buffs out there...

Never again in your lifetime, will the Red Planet be so spectacular.
This month and next, Earth is catching up with Mars, an encounter that will culminate in the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history. The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287. Due to the way Jupiter's gravity tugs on Mars and perturbs its orbit, astronomers can only be certain that Mars has not come this close to Earth in the last 5,000 years but it may be as long as 60,000 years.
The encounter will culminate on August 27th when Mars comes to within 34,649,589 miles and will be (next to the moon) the brightest object in the night sky. It will attain a magnitude of -2.9 and will appear 25.11 arc seconds wide. At a modest 75-power magnification Mars will look as large as the full moon to he naked eye.
Mars will be easy to spot. At the beginning of August Mars will rise in the east at 10 p.m. and reach its azimuth at about 3 a.m. But by the end of August when the two planets are closest, Mars will rise at nightfall and reach its highest point in the sky at 12:30 a.m. That's pretty convenient when it comes to seeing something that no human has seen in recorded history.
So mark your calendar at the beginning of August to see Mars grow
progressively brighter and brighter throughout the month. Share with your children and grandchildren. No one alive today will ever see this again.

[RebeccaT]

That is SO COOL! I will plan to be at the planetarium on August 27th!

Thanks for sharing, sneezles! :D

[honeygirl1971]

Yeah, thanks for posting this, sneezles! How cool!

[jamesm]

No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter. No one gave a thought to the older worlds of space as sources of human danger, or thought of them only to dismiss the idea of life upon them as impossible or improbable. At most terrestrial men fancied there might be other men upon Mars, perhaps inferior to themselves and ready to welcome a missionary enterprise. Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us. - H.G. Wells, War Of The Worlds

Let the invasion begin!

Thanks Sneezles!

[Wendy w]

Too cool, Sneezles. Thanks!

[wallycat]

Very Cool!!
Thank you :)

[clairea]

Very cool. Thanks for posting this. I will definitely make a point to look at this with my kids.

Claire

[DmOrtega]

Our local astronomy society puts on star gazing parties monthly at a couple of different parks in our neighborhood. They set up several powerful telescopes and we line up to check out the skies. It is very cool. This weekend we are heading to Eastern Washington to view Mars and anything else that we can get a look at with the same group. Star gazing is a lot of fun.

[SusanL]

for my students at school. They will be most impressed. Thank you so much!!

[HejazSunKat]

Thanks Sneezles....I'll be looking forward to sharing that with my husband while he's home from Saudi during August!

[sneezles]

Last night DH and I hung out in the pool waiting for Mars to show up. It was about 11pm and there was only a sliver of a moon. We happened to be in luck to see the Southern Delta Aquarids. This shower produces around 20 meteors per hour at it's peak, or better than one meteor every two minutes on average. Granted it's better to see meteor showers in the pre-dawn hours but this was pretty good, about one every 8 minutes! Found this

site (http://www.geocities.com/~starwanderer/meteor.htm)
and will be checking for future sky watching.
Mars was visible over the tree line about 11:30 and it was amazingly bright! Next time we're going to remember the telescope! ;)

[Pico]

I saw this in the paper today--so cool! I always enjoy watching the August 11 meteor shower, and this sounds even more amazing.

I live in a rural area, so my night sky is pretty vivid. Some family friends (avid cosmos-watcher) have been known to drive out at 2 a.m. and set up their telescope in our backyard! I hope they come for this one...