The Moon as big as Mars this year!

[Otisserie]

That's right! This year the moon will be as big as Mars on the night of the burn. Due to a once-in-a-lifetime planetary alignment the moon will actually be 10 million miles from earth. It will be so dim that it will appear as if there is no moon at all that night!

It's true! http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneDay.html

[golgotha-a-go-go]

I believe that event already occurred in 2003. This seems to be a rumor generated by a bogus email. I did some research and indeed found reference to the 2003 event, but hey, check it out for yourself.

[Kinetic IV]

Taking Golgotha up on his suggestion Earth and Sky has a webpage addressing this very question:
http://www.earthsky.com/skywatching/marsbrightest.php

Also Snopes: The Urban Legends Reference site has a page on this subject:
http://www.snopes.com/science/mars.asp

[Elemental666]

not too mention this is a new moon burn...

[Wakawaka]

Similar to KIV's post....

http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/b ... ounter.htm

I was just discussing this this morning with a coworker.

[swampdog]

Ahem. JOKE. I'm pretty sure that Otisserie is joking:

It will be so dim that it will appear as if there is no moon at all that night!

[Stilesfamily]

Bring out the shotgun Uncle Ned it’s time to put this old girl down.

As much as I would love for this to be true, Mars is just too far away. Anyone who paid any attention in basic astronomy would know that this will NEVER happen. And if it ever does happen, run for cover, because some serious shit is going down in our solar system. My guess is that this originated from an email that may have said something like “In an amateur telescope Mars will appear as large as the moon would with the naked eye” or something like that. And I may be correct, urban legends sample chain letter says “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.”

More from Urban Legends

(The message quoted above was often reproduced with an unfortunate line break in the middle of the second sentence of the second paragraph, leaving some readers with the mistaken impression that Mars would "look as large as the full moon to the naked eye" and not realizing that the statement only applied to those using viewing Mars through a scope with 75-power magnification.)

So we can put this one to bed. The down side of the net is all this crap we have to sift through to find something worth discussing.

[Otisserie]

Ahem. JOKE. I'm pretty sure that Otisserie is joking:

It will be so dim that it will appear as if there is no moon at all that night!

About time someone figured that out.
Did anyone actually read the original post?

[Wakawaka]

Doh!! Nice one Otisserie! Duhh. Jeez, and I was trying to be all smart and helpful. I'll go back to my beer now.

[Stilesfamily]

Ah, one of those times I wish I would have paid a little more attention before opening my big ass mouth.

[pollyboots]

"...beware the Mars Hoax. A rumor about the red planet continues to spread via email. The message claims that Mars will come so close to Earth on August 27th that it looks as big as the full Moon. In fact, Mars is approaching Earth for a close encounter in October--not August. October's close approach will indeed be beautiful, but Mars will never rival the Moon."

[ZaphodBurner]

Mars will never rival the Moon."

*shreik* WHAT DO YOU HAVE AGAINST PLANETS, RACIST?!?

All bodies are heavenly. Yeesh.

-c
OTOH, depsite her pale, pitted complexion, the moon chooses to be naked, so she gets bonus points. Sadly, she won't be attending the Burn this year because she has a prior commitment. We should write her name in the Temple.

[JediDale]

Yes, Mars will be very close. If you read the many articles from a variety of astronomy websites they say "Mars will look as big as the Moon with just a 75x magnification" It will be large and since there will be a waning moon in the last quarter, and it comes up late, Mars will be the brightest!

Genuinely,

Jedi Dale Of Reno

[karr]

That's right! This year the moon will be as big as Mars on the night of the burn.

Wow!! That's gonna be a TEENY, TINY, moon and we won't even be able to see Mr. Bunny on the moon. So sad.

[diane o'thirst]

If the moon and Mars appeared to be the same size — whichever way you sliced it — I'd be freaking out and frantically calling every friend and family member I could remember to tell them I loved them...

BTW...HAPPY 900TH POST! WHEEEE!!!