Mars...August 2009?

Candid Arts

Has anyone heard about this? Mars is supposed to be about as big as the moon starting in August and it will be getting brighter and brighter by the day (or so). It will be the second brightest thing in the sky next to the moon (at night). Supposedly, it's the closest it has ever been in recorded history to earth.

Just curious if anyone has heard anything about this and has any awesome radical groovy plans to do some once in a life time (maybe even once in human existence time) shooting?

I don't know if it's true or not, but I'm just throwing it out there anyways...

ehughes

http://www.snopes.com/science/astronomy/brightmars.asp

Candid Arts

Well there ya go. Assuming they are correct. I've heard of them being false as well...

DaddyO

roflSuch BS. Never going to happen. Ever.
All it takes is doing a small bit of homework to check the facts....

Modest 75X.... give me a break.

Rose City Astronomers Portland... Quality crew and so close to you.

pyry

Yup, bunk.

Mars did a record approach in August 2003, it reached 25 arc seconds in apparent size, which means it looked just a bit bigger than a point - much like Jupiter and Saturn do. The Moon is around 1800 arc seconds across. The brightness peaked at -2.8 mag. Venus gets brighter regularly when it's in the sky.

Here's what is going to happen: The next opposition is going to happen on Jan 29th 2010. Apparent size will be 14 arc seconds and brightness -1.2 magnitudes. Nothing extraordinary really.

jeffmeyers

pyry wrote:

Yup, bunk.

Mars did a record approach in August 2003, it reached 25 arc seconds in apparent size, which means it looked just a bit bigger than a point - much like Jupiter and Saturn do. The Moon is around 1800 arc seconds across. The brightness peaked at -2.8 mag. Venus gets brighter regularly when it's in the sky.

Here's what is going to happen: The next opposition is going to happen on Jan 29th 2010. Apparent size will be 14 arc seconds and brightness -1.2 magnitudes. Nothing extraordinary really.

Exactly right. Nice explanation.

DaddyO

Arc seconds. I love arc seconds. Nice describe Pyry. Way to nail it.

pyry

DaddyO wrote:

Arc seconds. I love arc seconds.

Try squaring those up to get surface areas (tiny little ones) - double the fun!
Yours truly has a thesis going on which is crawling with magnitudes per arc second squared...

GSPeP

Candid Arts wrote:

Mars is supposed to be about as big as the moon starting in August and it will be getting brighter and brighter by the day (or so).

I think we would have a big problem if that happens

David_S85

Bad Astronomer Phil Plait explains it here.