The infamous Mars hoax that has widely circulated on the Internet since it first appeared in the Summer of 2004 has surfaced again. I know because I’ve recently received the email from well-intentioned individuals and it now even includes a full-blown PowerPoint presentation to provide a sense of authenticity.

The e-mail declares that tonight, the night of Aug. 27, the planet Mars will come closer to Earth than it has in thousands of years, thereby offering spectacular views of the Red Planet. The commentary even proclaims that Mars will appear “as large as the full moon”.

The problem is that the “Aug. 27″ reference was for Aug. 27, 2003, the night when Mars made a historically close pass by Earth @ 34.6 million miles. Although the Hubble Space Telescope used the opportunity to make some great images of Mars, to the naked eye Mars appeared as nothing more than a bright star, not at all like the full moon.

FWIW it is impossible from the Earth for Mars to ever appear as large at the moon, but I’m sure we’ll be seeing this email again in the future… maybe next time with a video.

Isn’t technology wonderful?

One of the most remarkable naked-eye celestial observances from the Earth is that the Moon and Sun have almost the same apparent size. Depending on its position in orbit and relative distance from the Earth, the Moon can appear either larger or smaller than the Sun, resulting in solar eclipses on Earth occurring in two varieties: total, when the Moon is close enough to appear larger than Sun and completely cover it, and annular, where a more distant Moon fails to completely cover the Sun, resulting in a “ring of fire”.

Relative to any fixed location on Earth, a total eclipse of the sun is a rare event. I remember watching the last one visible from the continental U.S. in 1979 from the sidewalk in the front yard of our Piscatway, NJ home – through a piece of green welder’s lens my Dad handed to me. I had no idea of the significance or rarity of the event at that time as that was his last one & the next one won’t happen for us here until 2017.

The longest solar eclipse our generation will see until 2032 will occur in part of the Western Hemisphere on July 21 and on July 22, 2009 in the Eastern Hemisphere. It will be only a singular occurrence with the difference in dates being caused by our International Date Line. Those of us in the United States will not experience this eclipse first hand, but in this Information Society, live coverage should be scheduled to be broadcast and relayed primarily from China and Japan. I’ve been checking CNN, but haven’t found anything yet.

More information about this eclipse is available at NASA’s Eclipse Web Site.

Venus, the second planet from our nearest star, has a sidereal rotation period of 243 days but it’s near circular orbit period is approximately 225 days. This makes a Venusian day longer than a Venusian year. (Reflect on that concept for a bit… Would you celebrate your birthday every day?)

As close as it is to the Sun, the surface never sees direct sunlight since thick clouds always cover the entire surface. It’s the reflection of Sunlight off of this cloud-base that is responsible making Venus not only the brightest natural object in our nighttime sky but also bright enough to be seen in the middle of the day.

When Venus is in position between the Earth and the Sun (inferior conjunction), it makes the closest approach to Earth of any planet. It reaches inferior conjunction, on average, every 584 Earth days (5 Venutian Solar days) with a recent occurrence on 29 Mar 2009 (± 2 days) ¹ It has since ”passed” the Earth in it’s orbit around the Sun and went from being visible after Sunset to now visible before Sunrise.

Like our Moon, Venus exhibits “phases” but only in telescopic view. This could only be possible if the planet orbited the Sun and this discovery in the 17th century by Galileo supported the unfathomable 16th century Copernican heliocentric, or Sun-centered, idea that we are not the center of the Universe (although I know a few who’d probably still argue that point to date ;) ).

A couple of Carl Sagan Astronomy Videos on YouTube:

1. Pale Blue Dot 
2. The Cosmic Calendar

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We generally think of space as emptiness and quite readily ignore it, jumping from sphere to cosmic sphere… but the space between the obvious objects in the universe is the same, exactly the same, as the space between our thoughts… or the space between the notes that makes the music (Claude Debussy)… or the space between our atomic structure.

We learned very early on, in English classes of all places, that Thoughts (ideas) are things. But it is being conscience of the space between them that differentiates us from the other mammals. If you say something negative to me, I can choose to be offended and react violently or I can choose relative indifference and accept your opinion as yours. My decision is “in the gap between the thoughts”, where other animals instinctively react.

If the above example seems to “airy” or “pseudo-scientific” for you, let’s take something solid in our observable surroundings, say a block of lead. We’ll all agree that although it “looks” solid, it is been repeatedly shown through the Scientific Method to be a mass of moving molecules with space between them. Continue Reading »

The Full Moon nearest our Autumn equinox (a “Harvest Moon” - not to be confused with the Neil Young early 1990′s album of the same name) is yellow so that the farmers back in the day would have more light for bringing their last crops before Winter. 

As you’re probably already aware, all Full Moons rise around Sunset, therefore there is no long, dark period before we see them. The main difference between your “Harvest” moon and a regular, run-of-the-mill Full Moon is the time of day between subsequent nightly risings.

Moon risings after an “ordinary” Full Moon are supposedly 50 minutes later each night, but only 30 minutes later each night after our Moon in question. So my original paragraph was only half tongue-in-cheek & has roots in folklore; but Copernicus says it is not the reason “why” and that it’s Earth’s narrower angle of orbit around the Sun (ecliptic) at that time of year that make for the earlier moons that follow this one.

It has been said that this moon is no bigger, brighter or yellower than any other Full Moon, but this is just when people want to notice it. We can compare our upcoming Full Moons to check the validity of that statement by using the table of dates included at the end of this post.

Also of note would be that none of the above applies to peoples of the Southern Hemisphere who experience these Moons during our Spring and it’s difficult to Harvest so soon after a snow. They must get a “Planters Moon”.

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Got Moon?
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I was absolutely blown away by the size of the last Full Moon when it was breaking over the horizon! It seemed to be rivaling for attention against the morning Sunrise.

When la Luna (or any celestial body for that fact) is close to the horizon, we are looking at it through more of our own atmosphere (and consequently more particles) than when it is closer to the meridian. Our atmosphere deflects the bluish-white portion of the light before it can get to our retina while the reddish frequencies of the spectrum get through. It short: It’s our perception.

The Moon may apparently be the largest object in our night sky, but due to Venus’ closer proximity to our Day Star and her permanent layer of sulfuric acid cloud-cover reflecting 60% of the Suns light back into space, I would have to say that she is the brightest object in our night sky. Also, since Celena is so high when I look out my back door around this time, Venus is the first celestial object I lay eyes on, but once in a Blue Moon I’ll catch Orion.