Colleen Is From Mars

No wait, Colleen's story is about Mars. Yeah, that's it.

I've always liked Mars. Or maybe it was Mars bars.

On a serious note, Colleen has a great story about an historical astronomical event that took place three years ago. This is a once in a millenium event that we both hope you saw happen. Here now is Colleen with her story.

Mars

The Red Planet was spectacular! This month and next in 2003, Earth was catching up with Mars in an encounter that culminated 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 before it happens again. The encounter culminated on August 27th, 2003, when Mars came to within 34,649,589 miles of Earth and was (next to the moon) the brightest object in the night sky. It attained a magnitude of -2.9 and appeared 25.11 arc seconds wide. At a modest 75-power magnification

Mars looked as large as the full moon to the naked eye. Mars was easy to spot. At the beginning of August, 2003, it rose in the east at 10p.m. and reached its azimuth at about 3 a.m. By the end of August, 2003, when the two planets were closest, Mars rose at nightfall and reached its highest point in the sky at 12:30a.m. That was pretty convenient to see something that no human being had seen in recorded history. So, at the beginning of August, 2003, people were able to see Mars grow progressively brighter and brighter throughout the month. Share this with your children and grandchildren. And let them know that you were around to see it.

NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN

Um, what if you went out the next day and saw it again?

Yes, I know I should stop it.

My wife is heavily in to astronomy (not astrology, that is the belief that you will have the exact same day as one twelfth of the world's population). She has a super telescope with a computer and motors, which not only find the object you are looking for, but also track it to compensate for the rotation of the earth.

I sincerely hope no one missed this astronomical event as it happened in August of 2003.