a co-worker sent me this:

Two moons on August 27, 2007

Planet Mars will be the brightest in the night sky.

It will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye.
This will culminate on Aug. 27 when Mars comes within
34.65M miles of earth. Be sure to watch the sky on
Aug. 27th, 12:30 am .

It will look like the earth has 2 moons.
The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287.

Share this with your friends as NO ONE ALIVE TODAY will ever see it again.

__________________
The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong in the broken places. ~ Ernest Hemingway ...

Yes I to have lost the will to live; Not!
On August 28th we will if the sky is clear see the moon pass through Earths shadow. The moon will darken from one side and when its completely covered will appear red. Mars will not be in your field of view until about 4.30 am. and will not be as bright as Sirios...serios.. Umm.. Oh why do we bother.... Yes the closest approach of mars ever.. it will be bigger than the moon......

the hoax...not me

__________________
The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong in the broken places. ~ Ernest Hemingway ...

Mars sure must be huge as to be as "large as the full moon" when it's 145 times farther away than said full moon...Maybe Hoagland's face-building martians are building a giant magnifying glass to place in between Mars and Earth for this event.

If all the hoaxes died, though, then what would we all do for fun on this board?

__________________
"WARNING: Being launched into space is hazardous."--Lonewulf

Triplebrick is no longer birdable. It was fun while it lasted.

"N'oubliez pas: l'ours n'est pas un nounours!"--Nounours de Salmonberry

This has been cropping up on occasion for the last couple of years. If I were motivated, I could find a few other threads from the previous years. in 2003 IIRC, the Earth was near apehelion, Mars was simultaneously near perehelion and at opposition, which means that Mars was as close to the Earth as it has been for the past 50000 years or so. An article talking about this made some mention that Mars in a small telescope would look as large as the Moon to the unaided eye. Someone else embellished it, omitting the mention of the telescope and in addition didn't specify the year, so every year someone sees the article and assumes it is talking about this year.

__________________
Time flies like an arrow.
Fruit flies like a banana.

"On occasion" isn't quite accurate. I could set my watch (or calendar) by the regularity of it. Every August after 2003, some idiot finds it, updates it, and spreads it around. Regularly, and apparently without fail.

But my astro classes start about 2 weeks before that this year, so I have plenty of time to dispell it. If someone gets the forward, would they please PM it to me?

If this happening, wonder why Mar's isnt in our sky yet? At smaller to the naked eye. Now this is a hoax. Can't be quicker moving too close to the Earth.

__________________
Matt


Website:
www.freewebs.com/mattweather/

Forums: http://stormshunters.informe.com/

?

__________________
A person's name, or a mark representing it, as signed personally or by deputy, as in subscribing a letter or other document.

It's the green flashes you have to worry about I tell ya!!!!!

Mars would need to be about 3.5 times the diameter of Jupiter to appear that large at just 34 million miles. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think only stars can reach those parameters, because everything else just becomes more dense at high masses of those proportions, or at least that's how it works with gas giants. I don't know when fully rocky bodies cease to grow and dense up.