[Steppes] Mars OT, but interesting.

[Sarah]

Just a reminder to everyone that this coming Wednesday will be the night to look up at mars :) Dig out your telescopes :)
 
By the way Linet, I used to live in northern Canada and saw the Aurora Borealis quite often during the fall and winter. Even tho I saw it thousands of times I've never gotten tired of it. When I lived in Northern California i acctually saw them twice. They looked almost red however, which is very strange to me as they are usualy a blue/green. 
 
Lady Mia

Susan Hill <sueorintx at hotmail.com> wrote:
Thank you for the info, Lord John. I had already noticed that mars was 
exceptionally bright recently. When one takes the dog out in the middle of 
the night, one sees marvelous things sometimes. In Oregon I chanced to see 
the aurora borealis two times, and a herd of elk crossing the field in 
moonlight. They looked like grey ghosts.

One can only imagine what the thoughts were of those who lived in the period 
in which we play, had they seen this wonder of the skies. Perhaps a dragon 
was coming, , or war, or the world would end from the bright fire of the red 
star. What dire events or good fortune would such a sight foretell? Thank 
you again, my lord.

Linet


----Original Message Follows----
From: John de Irwynne 
Reply-To: "Barony of Steppes - SCA, Inc." 
To: steppes at ansteorra.org
Subject: [Steppes] Mars OT, but interesting.
Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2003 15:35:30 +0100 (BST)



This should be of interest to you. This August,
Earth is catching up to Mars, an encounter that will
culminate 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, astrometry 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. The encounter will culminate on
August 27th when Mars comes to within 34.649,589 miles
and will be (next to the moon) the
brightest object in the night sky. It will arraign a
magnitude of -2.9 and
will agorae 25.11 arc seconds wide. 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. At the beginning of August Mars will rise in
the east at 10 pm and reach the azimuth at about 3 am.
But by the end of August when
the two planets are closest, Mars will rise at
nightfall and reach its highest point in the sky

at 12:30 am. That's pretty convenient when it comes
to seeing something that no human has seen in
recorded history.
So, mark your calendar at the beginning of August to
see Mars grow
progressively brighter throughout the month. SHARE
THIS, NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN.



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