It’s prime time for the Red Planet

[rik]

Mars heads for its very close encounter with Earth this month.

Just ahead of a historically close approach to Earth later in August, Mars has become the “star” of the night.

FOR MONTHS VISIBLE only during morning hours, the Red Planet began August rising around 9:45 or 10 p.m. local daylight time and peeks above the horizon about four minutes earlier each night. Mars is now the third-brightest object in the nighttime sky, after the moon and Venus. To the unaided eye, Mars is by far the brightest “star” in the late-evening sky. Venus is currently too near the sun to be visible. Astronomers measure brightness of stars and planets on a scale in which smaller numbers represent brighter objects. Already dazzling, Mars attains unusual brilliance this month, reaching magnitude -2.9 on Aug. 22 and staying that bright through Sept. 3. Venus can reach magnitude -4.0 or brighter.

Anyone who has a telescope, no matter how modest it is, will probably want to find out what it can do with Mars. So what’s to be seen?

As the month progresses, the south polar cap — visible now to moderate-sized backyard telescopes — will be melting and shrinking down to a tiny white speck. The largest dark markings on the planet should be fairly easy to see in almost any telescope at 100-power and up, but finer details are notoriously difficult to spot.

Serious observers are keeping their fingers crossed that a major dust storm does not develop as Mars’ closest approach to the Earth draws nearer. The last time Mars passed relatively close to Earth (though not this close), in June 2001, a planetwide dust storm veiled most surface features for months.

Earth and Mars are nearer than normal because they’re lining up on the same side of the sun. A case of orbital fate, due to the fact that the planet’s orbits are not quite circular, has made special what would otherwise be a normal “opposition” event: Earth will be almost as far as it ever gets from the sun, and Mars will be about as close to the sun as it can be.

Mars comes closest to the Earth on the morning of Aug. 27 at 5:51 a.m. ET. The planet is then 34,646,418 miles (55,758,006 kilometers) from Earth, measured from center to center. This is closer to Earth than Mars has been in nearly 60,000 years, and Mars won’t come as close again until the year 2287.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/947131.asp?0cl=cR

[Doggie]

wow cool i am such a freak when it comes to stuff like this can't wait to see this

[SilentRob]

Sorry for the long rant, but I've been hearing about this for months now, and have talked to people who bought a brand new telescope just for this... I'm hoping to save at least *somebody* some money.

Every couple years, I hear the same Mars Opposition hype. Not that it's unearned. However, this year, telescope manufacturers and astro-stuff stores have been using this year's so-called "historical opposition" to hock a bunch of $100 plastic scopes and styrofoam Mars globes.

For the laypeople, if there are any:

Opposition - Earth is directly between the Sun and a certain planet.

Perihelion - The closest point to the Sun in a planet's orbit.

Perihelic Opposition - Earth is directly between the Sun and a planet while that planet is closest to the sun, meaning it's about as close to Earth as it gets.

Disk Size - Apparent angle that the planet covers in the sky (the moon and sun cover about half a degree, or 1800" [" = arcseconds])

A.U. - Astronomical Unit - Avg distance b/t Earth and Sun (~150 million km or ~93 million miles)

Fact: This year, Mars will indeed be closer to Earth than it has been in 73,000 years.

Another fact: Mars gets within 7 percent as close during every perihelic opposition every 15 years... and the average schmo (including me) probably won't tell the difference thru their personal telescope.

check out: Mars Opposition Table (William Sheehan, University of Arizona Press) -- scroll to the near bottom to see the "close-approach" opposition data.

In fact, during perihelic oppositions, Mars is in northern autumn/southern spring... the time when the notorious multi-month-long global-wide dust storms cover the face of the planet. Even NASA probes (the ones that didn't crash... okay that was unfair) can barely see the surface.

check out: Astronomy Picture of the Day (10 July 2003) - Dust Storm Over Northern Mars

check out: Astronomy Picture of the Day: (27 July 2001) - Martian Dust Storm (during the last opposition)

Bottom Line: I strongly recommend you check it out... just don't go buying $700 worth of astronomical equipment to see this without checking the current Mars weather (I'll get back to you all on a real-time monitoring webpage... if there is one). And if you check it out... don't do it because its only cool when close... check it out because it's cool *every* time!

If you're in Southern Cali, go to Mt. Pinios off the I-5 near Gorman on the weekend before opposition (23, 24 August)... I'm sure there'll be at least 15 big-a** telescopes to look thru, and hundreds of people to answer your questions.

Note to admins: I love your link buttons!