Once in a Lifetime
by 
Never again in your lifetime will the Red Planet of Mars be so spectacular.
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 he 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.
AI Summary
34 Comments
I'm so excited about this! We're gonna be camping next week so I'm gonna go to the beach at night and stare at it..like we did last year for the meteor shower!
yes, that is completely what i was thinking. nite beach party again. but it'll be too bright to have the same amount of fun as last year.
thats SWEET!
this sounds like the kind of thing everyone should get together to see . . .
eZable party time!!! WOOHOOOOO... i think we should... its gonna be cool!
this picture is now my new desktop. i love it. go mets!
I love it, too. Jehovah is amazing!
yeah! space has always amazed me.
el dude, it's el, not le. MAAANG
hopefully we will be alive the next time to see it again.
Yeah what was with the "only time in your life time to see it" statement? We will all see it again in 2000 whatever...
only if you're a good boy
yeah, if not THIS time, we should all get together in 2287 to see it . . .
sorry, i'd love to, but i'll be busy then. matt kelly will no doubt ALMOST be done having his moles removed.
will your sock drawer be organized yet?
by that time i'll have a ton more so don't count on it...
coool! This is so awesome! I'm going to be away in South Dakota for Unassigned Territory when it's at it's brightest! I can't wait to see it...I only hope we have a telescope to see it with.
I read somewhere that even using something with a modest 75x magnification would make it as large as the moon is to the naked eye. thats crazy. think of all the craters and formations you can see on the moon just looking at it. I guess we'll be able to see the same things on mars if we had a little telescope. I'm def. gonna go buy one. and then get as far away from edison as I can that night.
haha... "i read somewhere"
hahaha
wow. guess I should actually read the entire artice before posting comments. ok. move along. nothing to see here.
haha... i thought it was one of your witty jokes
um.. yeah. yeah. thats it. it was a joke. move along.
i named this story as such in reference to a hilarious talking heads song.
and you may tell yourself, "this is not my beautiful wife . . ."
jahanna and i were at the tennis courts last night...and we saw it!!
reallly? hmm. i am rather impressed.
yea it was really neat i wish i had a telescope
actually mars and the earth will be much closer on february 14th 2017 when they collide causing the end of life as we know it!!!!
it's a shame it was so cloudy last night cus since the lights were out we could see a lot of stars. but mars was so bright that we saw it even through the clouds.
Camping is the perfect place to see it! It was so cool looking, though we were all gazing with just the naked eye..save for Julie who was wearing contacts I think.
haha. i didn't wear them all vacation. i could still see it really good though.