Please forgive if someone's already posted this - I haven't noticed it but I haven't looked everywhere. A friend sent it on email t'other day and I thought others here might be interested to read about it:
Never again in your lifetime will the Red planet be so spectacular!! This
month the 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. Owing to the way Jupiter's
gravity tugs on Mars & perturbs its orbit, astronomers can only be certain
that Mars has not come this close to Earth in the last 5000 yrs but it may
be as long as 60,000 yrs.
The encounter will culminate on August 27th when mars comes to within
34,649,589 miles & will be (next to the moon) the brightest object in the
night sky. It will attain a magnitude of -2.9 & will apppear 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 pm & reach its
azimuth at about 3 am. By the end of Aug. when the two planets are closest,
Mars will rise at nightfall & reach its highest point in the sky at 12:30 am.
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 Aug
to see Mars grow progressively brighter & brighter throughout the month.
Share with your children & grandchildren. No one alive today will ever see
this again. This is a wonderful event. Please share with others.
(and I add this, from snopes, to satisfy sjmaxq
- emphasis is mine: "We should note that although Mars' close proximity to Earth in August 2003 will be a rare occurrence, the red planet comes almost as near to us every 15 to 17 years.
To the unaided observer, Mars won't really appear significantly larger or clearer this August than it does at those intervals.")
