The Mars Email is Back: No, Mars Won't Be as Big as the Full Moon

Okay, the Mars is as big as the full Moon email is making its annual rounds as it probably will every August. I am modifying my blog entry from the JT site last year slightly (and it was my first blog entry on the old site).

Back in August of 2003, Mars had a relatively close approach to Earth of about 34 million miles. The media picked up on this and a silly email started going around stating that Mars would appear as 'big as the full Moon". Well, it wasn't true then and it isn't true now. This email seems to come around every August and proabably will every year from now until the end of the internet.

Mars NEVER appears as big as the full Moon. The confusion seems to have stemmed from an astronomer who said if you had a telescope with 75x magnification (fairly common for small amateur telescopes) Mars would appear as big as the full Moon. Then someone left off the 75x magnification part and the legend was born. Yes, Mars was nice and bright that year (I got my fair share of observing in) but to the naked eye, it was a bright, orange dot.

Mars had an opposition in December of 2007. However, due to the fact that the orbit of Mars is an ellipse, Mars will be much farther away, about 55 million miles this time. Mars's next opposition will be in January of 2010 and a distance of almost 100 million km (about 60 million miles).

Right now, Mars is not even visible as it is on the opposite side of the Sun and over 200 million miles from Earth!

Same post next year at the same time, I expect. Some things never die.