First time poster! :O

[SyntaxTerror]

Hi guys, not much of an astronomy nut myself, but came across an interesting bit of information on another site which really interested me.

I had a quick search of the forums and couldn't really find any information on it, but apologies anyway if this is common knowledge.

Could anyone tell me if we'll be able to see much here in Australia when it happens. Sounds like a pretty amazing event.

[[1ponders]]

Hi Syntax. And :welcome:

Yep that's been getting around for a while now. Unfortunately its two years out of date. :) Also if mars looked as large as a full moon, even then I'd be starting to really worry about what's happening to the planetary orbits :P

[Orion]

I said to myself how can it be the closest it has ever been didn't we go through this a couple of years ago? I just finish looking it up on Starry Night sure enough it did happen a couple of years ago.

Hi Syntax. And :welcome:

[cometcatcher]

Syntax Terror, Mars does a semi close approach every 2 years roughly. This time closest is around the end of October with a size of about 20 arc seconds compared to the last approach of about 25 arc seconds. Every 15 years there's a very close approach that will reach to around 25 arc seconds again.

Usually the media circus get hold of some info and blow it out of all proportion when really these things happen all the time.

Jupiter and Saturn are almost always larger than Mars anyhow so there's always something to look at.

[ving]

shame its not till er... 2 years ago :P

still I want to catch mars later this year tho. :) should be close enuff to catch some detail :)

[cometcatcher]

Unless there are dust storms...

[acropolite]

SyntaxTerror wrote

You're already on your way to becoming one.... Welcome to the nuthouse....:p

[iceman]

Hey Ian, nice to see you here. SyntaxTerror is another ex-clan mate from the online gaming days.

Imagine Mars the size of the full moon! I'm sure there was lots of hysteria back then with the Mars opposition.. I was only partially into astronomy at that stage, but the interest was growing.. every morning when I'd hop in the car to go to work, I'd watch Mars get brighter in the morning sky.