Mars on the horizon

[Bill]

This month and next, 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. But 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 grow progressively brighter and brighter
throughout the month.
Share this! No one alive today will ever see this again

[Ironduke]

It will be interesting to watch. Just a few months ago there was a total eclipse of the moon, another rare occurance, but not as rare as that.

[BUFF]

Amazing stuff! I love studying the Universe...totally fasinating.

Any of you ever heard of '51 Peg'? There is a planet the size of Jupiter orbiting '51 Peg' the amazing thing is, its VERY VERY close to 51 Peg...bout 1/6 of that of the distance between Mercury is to the Sun.

And, it's very unusal for such a planet that big to be so very close. If we ever sent an orbiter to '51 Peg', it would take half-a-million years to do so. Even with our technology it would be very slim chance of such an orbiter to ever survive. Cool stuff though!

[Bill]

Yeah, i love that stuff too BUFF.

Anytime i want to feel insignificant i just watch one of those shows on space.

LOL, helps to make one's problems seem trivial.

[BUFF]

lol, I can't wait..till we explore more about the universe. I am sure there are intelligent beings out there somewhere...it's just gonna take more time.

[bigross86]

Just check under my bed. It hasn't been cleaned in so long I'm sure you'll find some mutant variants of Playboy magazine which are quite intelligent by now...

[Bill]

I hope there's more intelligent life 'out there' than there is on Earth, lol.

[BUFF]

I wander if we will ever go to war with the Aliens.

I was watching a Special on the History Channel(Best Channel ever)..most of the UFO sightings were near US nuclear facilities after the nuke's were dropped on the Japanese. Back in the Cold War, US and Soviet Air bases were visited numerous times. There was a UFO over a Soviet Silo back in the day, and the operator said it was ready to launch in a instant. Scary stuff.

Back in 97', Phoenix, Az..huge UFO was spotted over the city, the people said couldn't have been a USAF aircraft due to the MASSIVE size. The F-16s were also sent to intercept two red spots hovering over the city, once the F-16s reached their destination the two red lights speeded off. Then the USAF said it was flare excersises or some crap.

Weird stuff...

[Jay]

BUFF,
too many late nite cinemas and TV shows.
but seriously, who's ready to inhabitat Jupiters moons??