The e-mail quotes "Mars will look as large as the full moon to the
naked eye."Nothing ambigious here, Mars will not look as big as the moon to the naked eye now or back in 2003, it may be as bright but not as big. In a telescope it may look as big but then so would Pluto given the aperture and a billion X's eyepiece. As for dates and times, they too are incorrect for 2005 but I guess may have been correct for 2003. And yes, no wonder the general public think that the horsehead nebula should look just like hubbles pics of it to the naked eye. I do get a bit peeved with the media when they blow these things out of proportion, as a presenter at the Mapleton observatory which is designed for public viewing, Paul (1ponders) and I are the one's that have to burst the bubble for these people, they somehow want to blame us for the bad news. Ahh such is the life of an ametuer Astronomer.