I had a friend send me a Powerpoint similar to this today. When I looked more closely, it actually says "with a relatively low power telescope at 70x Mars will appear the same size as the full moon". It went on further quoting a size of 25" and mag -2.9 - values march reached in Aug 2003.
I suspect what was once (somewhat) correct info for 2003 which WAS an unusually close pass has mutated with chinese whispers alas (note opposition was 27/8/03...)
http://spider.seds.org/spider/Mars/marsopps.html
At least people are interested in astronomy for 20 secs.....
