Ironman Posted August 12, 2003 Share Posted August 12, 2003 I just recieved this in an email and thought it was kind of cool so I am passing it along to all of you. The Red Planet Never again in your lifetime will the Red Planet be so spectacular! This month and next month the 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 the 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. 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 grows progressively brighter and brighter throughout the month. Share with your children and grandchildren. No one alive today will ever see this again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flexmoney Posted August 12, 2003 Share Posted August 12, 2003 I hope I don't screw around and miss this. The best place I can think of to check it out is down on the shooting range. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AikiDale Posted August 12, 2003 Share Posted August 12, 2003 Thanks for the stats Jim. Last night, actually this morning, about 12:30 AM I happened to be outside looking for a few meteors from the Persiod shower and it was too darn bright to see more than a couple of stars here because of the full moon. That very bright star about 30 degrees to the left of the moon was Mars! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiG Lady Posted August 13, 2003 Share Posted August 13, 2003 Cloudy skies in the Pacific Northwest have screwed us out of more celestial neat-things in the last ten years than I care to remember. If the weather screws us out of THIS event, I'm moving. Period. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricW Posted August 13, 2003 Share Posted August 13, 2003 BTW- A pair of high-quality binoculars, a comfy lawn chair, and a Martini of your choice can make for some pleasant late-night viewing. Sky And Telescope's Martian Scoop For anyone in the Orygun area, the Oregon Star Party is a surefire way of getting in some good Mars viewing time. No need to have your own scope, they'll have plenty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TDean Posted August 13, 2003 Share Posted August 13, 2003 That's neat, but 34,649,589 miles is close? How damn far is it typically? 37 million?!! I love pondering the universe, but this isn't making me jump out of my seat. I hope when I see it I'm wrong. Cool stuff though.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ErikW Posted August 13, 2003 Share Posted August 13, 2003 If I get in trouble for looking through my Leupold rifle scope, it's all your fault... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiG Lady Posted August 13, 2003 Share Posted August 13, 2003 Yes, there is quite a bit of activity scheduled for the Martian arrival. The local paper did a lavish coverage of it this week. There's a four-day convention at the local Hilton Hotel starting Thursday; an astronaut is slated to speak; sci-fi authors and other entrepreneurs also scheduled to appear, plus some live music on Friday and a banquet on Saturday--then the Star Party. There'll be another "Mars Party" on August 22 and a Back-to-School Star Party on Sept 12. Meanwhile, more land rovers are headed to Mars as we speak, and more are schedule for launch and arrival within the year. Local speculation has it that the reason people have been so irritable lately IS the proximity of Mars. As good a reason as any. Gah! Let's just hope the weather stays clear later in the month--I mean it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiG Lady Posted August 13, 2003 Share Posted August 13, 2003 TDean-- Nothing quite like magnification brings the sky-works a little closer to your soul: I got acquainted (up close and personal) with the Moon while working on the Alaskan North Slope oil fields during the longest nights of the year... Some cool guys drove up to the campsite one night in an enclosed all-terrain thing (they were surveyors out seein' the sights--little did I know...) and asked me if I wanted to drive out over the water and peek at the sky thru their instruments. Of course I did. We took the cat out onto the forzen Arctic Ocean away from the campsite lights, set up the surveying instruments (high magnification) and viewed the full moon. Gasp. Wow. And double Wow. We had to move the instrument about every 10 seconds owing to the movement of the Earth, but the view was spectacular. Up close and personal. From nearly the North Pole, for pete's sake. Now THAT was a private "Star Party", I mean it. "I hope when you see it you're wrong" and enjoy the hell out of it. Magnification can change your life. SL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TDean Posted August 13, 2003 Share Posted August 13, 2003 Absolutely! I've been playing with telescopes since I was 10, and I just got one that has a "motor" on it to track objects (I haven't used it yet though). I'm in so much awe of "what's out there" that it bugs me that some people don't care! Nothing matters on this planet when you put it up against the cosmos....nothing. My mom once told me "most people think of the night sky and all it's stars as a big umbrella, but what's beyond that?.." Ya, what is...... Sig-Lady, that Alaska experience was awesome huh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiG Lady Posted August 13, 2003 Share Posted August 13, 2003 Alaska was a VERY awesome experience--in all ways. When we were kids, we'd sleep outdoors in our backyards in summer and (of course) stare at the sky. I'd always bring up the subject of, "Hey, how far do you think it goes out there...???" It'd spook the kids every time. They'd nearly fall off the side of the planet trying to grasp it. Great fun. We spend WAYYYYY too much time sweatin' the small stuff much of the time (like poorly scoring targets) and forget to 'smell roses' let alone stare upward for any length of time!!! TD-- Have fun with Mars! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Posted August 13, 2003 Share Posted August 13, 2003 Mars has been great from here the last few nights. Laying in the backyard on the trampoline is a great way to watch the night sky. Siggy, working the North Slope? I knew you had an interesting resume, but I didn't know you was "oil field trash" too. I'll add that to the list of things I like about you. (BTW, Please don't tell my dear old mother that I work in the oil patch. She still thinks I'm a piano player in a whore house.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricW Posted August 13, 2003 Share Posted August 13, 2003 If I get in trouble for looking through my Leupold rifle scope, it's all your fault... It's only a problem if you don't have the proper permit. Man, did I ever catch hell for wasting a Sasquatch during elk season one year.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiG Lady Posted August 13, 2003 Share Posted August 13, 2003 Sam-- Yep, there's no end to the stuff I've done. Almost. (That quote about the whorehouse was seen more than once on t-shirts in Alaska and Washington State.... ) Yep, have a hard hat full of oil field contractor stickers and a foot locker full of the same. It was a superb experience. I worked oil fields in between radio broadcasting gigs. What a combination. The geologists were usually my fave subcontractors. We didn't keep firearms in the oil field camps as such, but they were permitted to several select personnel in the more remote mining camps (summer work) where access to immediate security--or medical care--was limited. There were, after all, large fauna out there. Ooops... thread drift..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benos Posted August 15, 2003 Share Posted August 15, 2003 In dramatic fashion, I told one of my buddies at the local bar about the "Mars thing," a cook actually, and he said he was going to use that as a pickup line later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ironman Posted August 16, 2003 Author Share Posted August 16, 2003 Whatever works Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ErikW Posted August 16, 2003 Share Posted August 16, 2003 We want an update on whether it works. I need some good lines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricW Posted August 16, 2003 Share Posted August 16, 2003 We want an update on whether it works.I need some good lines. You might want to have access to a scope, before you deliver the line. Or at least be able to convincingly run out of gas. BTW, it does work. I picked up my girlfriend in college on a starhunting expedition.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricW Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 For those of you who haven't been glued to your telescopes lately...this is from the Hubble: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew_Mink Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 On my smallish telescope, I was actually able to see one of the polar ice caps about a week ago. We were under a total cloud cover the 27th, so my best view of it was earlier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flexmoney Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 GRrrrrrrrr, Went to mom's. She has a telescope a few years back. First time out...it is broken. My brother has one just like it (Christmas present from mom). I am sure it is still in the box. Maybe I should go "borrow" it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nik Habicht Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 Kyle, Does "borrow" at your house mean that it becomes yours on "permaloan?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricW Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 Only because I like you guys....here's the Deal of the Century on a computerized GOTO scope: Celestron GOTO scope from Costco (of all places...) Normally, $158 won't buy a tripod, but here you get a so-so Newtonian and the totally computerized mount. My buddy paid $230 for his and once he got it collimated got good results. Apparently these scopes are on closeout, so if you're serious, get out your credit card and commit. Even if you hate the scope, it's a good deal on a robotic mount. I'm seriously thinking of plunking my Televue on one of these. BTW, I was able to make out the polar cap pretty consistently with my 70 mm refractor. What seems to really help is to get a filter - red or magenta I think... I'll find out for sure. At least where we are, the seeing is ranging from lousy to rotten, so nobody is getting a really clear image. Even WSU's scope is wanting in image output. So don't feel too bad if you're not seeing much. I don't think it matters how big your scope is - we're all in the same boat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kimel Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 Yeah, all that smoke in the air down here ain't helping that is for sure. High overcast last night was not fun. Someone at work said it was pretty decent around 0300 this morning at their house. BTW...those Costco scopes are going fast. I just saw a half dozen posts on another forum from folks that had just ordered one so you better warp that plastic money quick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ErikW Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 That picture is a hoax. It's not a polar cap on Mars; it's Bend, Oregon at this year's Area 1 Championship. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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