Mars Graze

[xane]

http://www.lunar-occultations.com/iota/2003marsgraze/mars.htm

 

[WPKenny]

Buh? So that's mars...and it was in the sky, and you could see it?
Am I missing something? Did something unusual happen?

 

[Summo]

Mmmmmmuuuhhhh...

 

[dysfunction]

That was on the 17 July over America

:/

 

[whipped]

It's plummeting to Earth!!! RUN AWAY!!!!

 

[xane]

Mars passes beyond the Moon every month, but like a solar eclipse there are only certain times when the orbit lines up and Mars actually passes behind the Moon, and just like an eclipse it is only viewable from certain places on the Earth.

Right now, Mars is the closest it has ever been to Earth for 70,000 years, so rather than a small red dot, you can actually see a disk, and with a powerful telescope make out all the surface features.

Makes a great photo, basically.

 

[moomin]

I'll try and use my binmoculars, but light pollution is a biatch

 

[Summo]

Mars appears red because of pollution from cars and lorries and cars.

 

[xane]

Don't be stupid Summo, there are no cars on Mars, because there are no life forms to drive them !

Apart from Mazda's, which require little or no organic intelligence.

 

[Summo]

You fell into my trap, you fool! Everyone knows Mars is red because of the iron in our eyes.

 

[xane]

But iron is white.

I know, because ours is white with clear blue plasticy bits.

 

[Summo]

You're thinking of Venus, which is predominantly plastic.

 

[xane]

Serena is much nicer, a sort of rubbery softer plastic.

 

[Clowneh!]

neat pictures

i used to be into all this astronomy stuff, got bored when they started forcing me to learn all about this parallax and shit like that

 

[Wij]

Originally posted by xane
Serena is much nicer, a sort of rubbery softer plastic.

With a big arse !

 

[ECA]

Serena has bigger *orbs* as well.

 

[moomin]

also summo lets not get onto the topic of uranus


thats brown I hear

 

[ECA]

But what colour are the rings?

 

[Ash!]

Anyone know what part of the Night Sky it can be seen at ?

 

[ECA]

Originally posted by Ash!
Anyone know what part of the Night Sky it can be seen at ?

Spot the thicky.

 

[Gumbo]

WinStars

I only had a quick look, but it appears that it is 'The Business'.

 

[pcg79]

i thought this was about a new chocolate bar or something

 

[Ash!]

Originally posted by ECA
Spot the thicky.

Err why ??

Perfectly normal question to ask is anyone knows where in the sky Mars is ?

 

[dysfunction]

Originally posted by Ash!
Err why ??

Perfectly normal question to ask is anyone knows where in the sky Mars is ?

Well its going to move as the earth and it moves so just look up.

 

[Gumbo]

If you use that Winsatars program I posted, and a Compass then you'll find it really easily.

 

[Ash!]

Originally posted by Gumbo
If you use that Winsatars program I posted, and a Compass then you'll find it really easily.

Thank you Gumbo. I was going to rephrase the question for the more pedantic amongst us. If I were to be looking at the night sky at 10.00 pm this evening which part of the sky would it be in i.e. East West North South

 

[Gumbo]

Sorry it took awhile, but having re downloaded the truly excellent Winstars program i linked to on the previous page, I can see that from my Location in Norfolk, at 22:00 tonight Mars will be on a bearing of 118 degrees, but only just above the horizon at an angle of 4 degrees. As the night goes on though Mars will move round to the south, and get higher in the sky.

Hope this helps (but get the program yourself, it's only 3 meg).