Close encounter, by celestial standards

Close encounter, by celestial standards
Mars edges closer to Earth than at any time in the past 60,000 years

David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor Monday, August 25, 2003

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Sixty thousand years ago, the Neanderthal people and early modern humans must surely have watched a faint but familiar point of light in the southeastern sky grow brighter and brighter until its brilliant topaz-yellow light outshone everything in the nighttime heavens save the moon.

We will never know what those people may have thought or feared, because they left no record among their rare artifacts. But today we do know what they were seeing: It was the distant planet Mars, flying on its elliptical track around the sun and closing its gap on Earth's orbit while it appeared to blaze in brightness as the two planets neared.

That same phenomenon is occurring once again as Mars draws closer to Earth day by day, and on Wednesday at precisely 2:51 a.m. PDT, the fabled Red Planet will pass 34,646,437 miles from Earth -- closer than it has been in the past 60 millennia.


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Mars rises in the southeastern sky while it is still twilight, so its brightness will not be apparent until well after dark -- about 9 or 9:30 p.m., according to Andrew Fraknoi, chair of the Foothill College Astronomy Program, and it is best seen low in the south-southeastern sky well after 10 p.m. as it moves toward the west-southwest until dawn. The phenomenon will be visible well into September.


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Some viewing tips:

-- Wait until at least 9:30 p.m. when the sky is really dark.

-- Follow Mars night after night as it moves slowly from the south- southeast to the southwest all night.

-- The planet will remain fairly low in the sky, so avoid blocking your view with high buildings or hills.

-- Be sure to dress warmly; it can get chilly late at night.

-- For up to date Mars information, the best Web site is: www.whiteoaks. com/jane/mars/


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/08/25/MN65435.DTL

A nice little break from all the politics and world destruction, unless Bush decides to drill for oil on Mars. Don't laugh, he is just dumb enough.

Having to kick my own dead threads.

Spectacular, once in many lifetimes, sight to see. As cool as the comet(s) we saw back in the 90s.

No telescope, and the back yard is surrounded by trees, but I thought it was a plane at first until I noticed it didn't move. I'm going to hunt up a telescope and try again tonight.

You can see the ice caps on its poles. Very much like the earths polar ice caps.

I dragged my scope out last night and watched Mars for a couple of hours. The seeing was bad and the transparency was worse, but Mars was still impressive.

I was camping in the Ozarks this last weekend. I could see the ice cap with only a pair of binoculars. Spectacular!

Will sneak to a utility poll with a baseball bat on a clear night.

On a clear night you can see Enron.