By the time you finish reading this sentence, you'll be 25 miles closer to the planet Mars.

Source:
science.nasa.gov...

Earth and Mars are converging, and right now the distance between the two planets is shrinking at a rate of 22,000 mph--or about 25 miles per sentence. Ultimately, this will lead to a close approach in late December 2007 when Mars will outshine every star in the night sky. Of a similar encounter in the 19th century, astronomer Percival Lowell wrote the following: "[Mars] blazes forth against the dark background of space with a splendor that outshines Sirius and rivals the giant Jupiter himself."

Contrary to rumor, though, Mars is never going to outshine the Moon.

So why fly there all we have to do i wait

While there won't be Two Moons on August 27th, there will be Two Eyes. At 3 o'clock in the morning on that date, Mars will rise in the eastern sky alongside the red giant star Aldebaran. The two red lights side-by-side will resemble two eerie, unblinking eyes. This is worth waking up for!

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3 am is not worth waking up for... though it is worth staying up to watch! lol. thats what ill be doing. nice find!

Man! One astronomical event after another. First I watched the Perseid Meteor shower and it was wonderful. But, frankly, my neck is still aching from all that rubbernecking skyward.

Oh well, it looks like it's gonna ache some more. I know that I'll have my binoculars out to check out Mars on the 27th. At least I don't have any real light pollution to contend with from my vantage point.

Well, Mars may be coming close but it is a cycle of when it really gets close ( 35 million miles away only) otherwise it can vary to 60 million miles away. So, I was trying to remember when I saw it a long time ago all night at the local astronomy club only to find out when turning on the light we ( Ken) and I were both standing in a fog -- haze. But that was excellent viewing because the air was not moving and that was after all night looking at the S pole on top because telescopes invert the view and I think E and W are still right or something like that. That was back probably around 1988 - 9 or so. So I think 2003 or 4 was the closest approach again when Mars would be bigger and brighter because if it was this year, and subtracting 15 or 17 from this year, it would not be the correct year since I know it was the late 80's and not even 1990 yet. Could have been 1987, for a lot was going on in those years. That also was when Halley's Comet was seen back I think in 1986, and that won't be around again until 2061 and that has about a 75 year ellipitcal orbit. Well, Mars may be bright, but again there is a cycle when it is the closets there at 15 to 17 years and the rest is just a close approach because of the orbits of both the Earth and Mars -- being Mars has an orbit of about 2 years.
So I think Mars is going to be close to the Earth every 2 years anyway at some time or there about.

Not an endorsement or anything, but to amatuer astronomers, these two usually will have something to say about anything like that and probably star charts (if needed) when or before it happens.

www.skyandtelescope.com...

www.astronomy.com...

Unfortunately, do not feel disappointed if Mars is not all that Great and actually kind of looks like a star up in the sky to the naked eye. The fact that Planets do not twinkle and stars do because of the atmosphere can assure you that you are looking at a Planet up in the sky with the naked eye.

100 degree apparent field of view for a new Televue, well have to go and at least take a look at that, although I bet the price is pricey for that eyepiece.

G'Day!


[edit on 8/23/2007 by AmoebaSized]

Neat-o. The day after this there's gonna be a total lunar eclipse and the moon will look red. So many red things in the sky.. Persieds, Mars, Aldebaran, Moon.. hmm.. I see a trend. I wonder what these signs would have meant a thousand years ago.

sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov...

Wow nice find man!
I'll be out there looking at mars then

[edit on (8/26/0707 by Fire King540]

Ok, I'm staying up tonight to watch this one from Nashville. Going to take pictures with my camera and post them if they are worth a crap sandwich. I don't have any fancy lenses, just a digi-cam, so they will probably suck butt.

Looking forward to actually seeing it with my own eyes though! Woohoo! It's gonna be another one of those trademark "ATS All-Nighters"...

EDIT: On the other note, if Mars will be so extremely close to us in December, I would think that organizations such as NASA might try to take advantage it. Go ahead and launch some probes to Mars when you're close, so it doesn't take as long to get there. Maybe I am whacked out here and just a little ignorant.

Are there any Mars missions planned to launch near the end of the year?

EDIT: It's starting to happen here in Nashville. Here are some spiffy screenshots from a program called Stellarium (Ubuntu/Linux). They show what the sky looks like with Mars and all as if you were here in Nashville right about this post-time.



Perspective Shot w/ Constellations











Perspective Shot w/ Constellation Artwork











Perspective Shot w/ Constellation Artwork & Azimuthal Grid









[edit on 8/27/2007 by damajikninja]

Hey am I just sleepy or something? It is 8-27-07 12:24am and the moon rose long ago? Do you mean I missed it? I am in Missouri... You know the show me state? I would love to see the 2 eyes. Whats up?

Never mind I guess I am sleepy lol, just got the clarification, do we have any web cam's set up by anyone yet? I can try but the cord is too short unless I can wake my hubby to hook it up for me. This is worth getting some espressso and just hanging out until 3 am.

[edit on 27-8-2007 by antar]

Alright, welcome to the slumber party Antar! I finally got the bbcode worked out for my post above... if you are curious about where to look in the sky, my images should give you an idea. They are all snapshots of the sky around 12:18am Aug 27, 2007.

Gonna go outside and look at it now while I smoke a cig. May have to go for a quick walk to get lined up right away from trees. Gonna take a picture or two, but they probably won't show much without nice lenses.

Well here in California I'll have to wait until about 2am until mars clears the nearby buildings/trees. But in typical California fashion, everytime something cool happens in the sky, its a cloudy night!? I missed the Persieds, probably this too.. Hopefully I can see the total lunar eclipse tuesday early morning.

Just got back from driving around some. I went and found a higher elevation point on the hills south of town here. I can only see about 5 objects in the sky. The moon, a bright star to the NE, a faint star higher up to the E, and two faint dots low to the horizon in the E, with the one on the left a little higher than the one on the right. That's got to be Mars and company.

I was expecting it to be a bit brighter and dramatic, but right now it's just two dim pin-pricks. I can't even tell if they are reddish. Maybe they will shine brighter as we approach sunrise?

My back yard looks out to the east. I have gone out a few times and what I see is a very colorful twinkling light to the N.E. And then two hands spread to the east of that is a dimmer smaller star that is quite bright. It is a great night here in the Midwest for star gazing. I wish our telescope was better, Its just not even worth pulling out, well maybe I will. But if those are the eyes I have to say, then they should have said they resemble a Picasso lol. I'll keep on looking anyway. I do love the night and the stars.

I keep thinking I'm going to go out there and get freaked out by two distinct red eyes staring over the horizon back at me....

[edit on 27-8-2007 by antar]

Originally posted by antar
I keep thinking I'm going to go out there and get freaked out by two distinct red eyes staring over the horizon back at me....

You know, me too. I haven't seen anything quite that intimidating yet though. Still just two dim points of light...

Oh Damajikninja, that is a very cool star chart, the way it looks the stars we are looking at are the ones. Did you see it as it rose? Maybe thats when they were red eye looking? For some reason I missed this post until late and I certainly missed the red eye thing. Can I get that to work from my house too? How do I do it?

Well DMN is it supose to be at 3am Our time?I think we are on the same time zone, I am by Springfield Missouri. BRB

Ok now I see them. I was looking from the porch at the colorful twinkling one to the north of the 2 red eyes. I have a tree in the way standing on the porch but just now I went out to the lawn and sure enough no mistake straight ahead to the east they were there. I missed them coming over the horizon but no mistake the 2 red dots in the sky were there at about 40 degrees up. ( don't hold me to the degrees)

Two faint red dots. Mars is on the left.

This is shot off my back porch, three stories up, facing off toward the E-NE. I can see the two red dots ok, but the camera had a tough time with it. This is the best I could do...

[edit on 8/27/2007 by damajikninja]

Tonight is the total eclipse of the Moon? I think it is anyway. That was fun last night DMN. It felt like we were together on the experience! It was such a beautiful night and the 2 red eyes were lovely, just wish I had seen them as they rose, bet it would have been creepy too!

Here are the Lunar Eclipse Diagrams for your area...

An orange to blood red moon? I am going to be hoping for clear skies, however back in the 8o's I had been told by a close friend of mine from Taos Pueblo that was an Indian War Chief that I should not look at the moon when it is red nor go outdoors during that time. But that was then and this is now. I hope to get some pictures this time around.

oops I do that some times... here is that link from the above post...

sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov...