Mars is coming! Mars is coming!

Thomason

Thomason

Joined
Nov 28, 2002
Messages
9,375
Check it out. The show starts this month and next and on Aug 27th it will be at the closest point.

"Mars won't be precisely this close again for almost 28,000 years! The last time it was this close was at least 50,000 years ago"

The link.
http://www.kyes-world.com/marswatch.htm
 
I believe that was two years ago. Every 26 months Mars and Earth make close approaches, but the really close ones happen when Mars is at perihelion (its closest point to the sun) while the Earth is at aphelion (its furthest from the sun) and it is not common for these two things to coincide. About every six to eight conjunctions, we get a fairly close one.

The one in 2003 was the closest in human history, but the difference was maybe 40,000 to 50,000 miles. On an approach of 35 million miles, this is only a difference of ~1/100 of 1%.
 
Fellow forumites, please accept my sincere apology. Yet another example of why I am the "Goofy Doofus".
 
Steve is correct. Mars was closet two summers ago. Mars is a major dissappointment in the telescope, very small. You need great seeing to catch a glimpse of its surface. Jupiter is always the most interesting because it is so large. You can see the four main moons going around the planet.
 
Thomason said:
"Mars won't be precisely this close again for almost 28,000 years! The last time it was this close was at least 50,000 years ago"
Click to expand...

Timed perfectly to coincide with the release of Spielberg's new movie 'War of the Worlds.' :eek: :eek:
 
Thomason said:
Fellow forumites, please accept my sincere apology. Yet another example of why I am the "Goofy Doofus".
Click to expand...

I have this true-life documentary called Capricorn One if you would like to lend it :D
 
I checked out Mars a couple of years ago with my small reflector. It was pretty frustrating. You couldn’t really make out any surface features.

The opposition of Saturn, in December and now January, has been amazing for the last few years though. I showed my dad a view of Saturn through my little telescope and it totally blew his mind. :)
 
One of the problems with viewing Mars is the frequent large dust storms. That was a factor two years ago.

I have an 8" schmidt-cassegrain scope and have seen surface markings on Mars when the seeing conditions (Earth's atmosphere) were very good and the dust storms weren't active.

Jupiter and Saturn are far better scenery than Mars at any given time.
 
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