Just About Moon
An email that been going around the internet every summer since 2003 is back. It claims that Mars will look as large as the moon to the naked eye on August 27 this year, essentially appearing like we have two full moons.
Back in 2003, Mars did have a close encounter with Earth when it came within 35 million miles. It was much brighter, and appeared about 6 times larger than it normally does, but it was still just a dot in the sky to the naked eye.
According to Sky and Telescope magazine, the myth of the two moons started shortly before this encounter with a simple personal email saying that with a magnification of 75x in a telescope, the red planet would appear as big as the moon appears without a telescope.
This email then got forwarded a number of times, getting edited in the process to eventually take out the fact that you needed a telescope to look at Mars to see this effect.
By the end of this month, Mars will rise just before midnight and will be high in the southeastern sky around dawn, but it will still only be a dot in the sky…unless you have a telescope!
Back in 2003, Mars did have a close encounter with Earth when it came within 35 million miles. It was much brighter, and appeared about 6 times larger than it normally does, but it was still just a dot in the sky to the naked eye.
According to Sky and Telescope magazine, the myth of the two moons started shortly before this encounter with a simple personal email saying that with a magnification of 75x in a telescope, the red planet would appear as big as the moon appears without a telescope.
This email then got forwarded a number of times, getting edited in the process to eventually take out the fact that you needed a telescope to look at Mars to see this effect.
By the end of this month, Mars will rise just before midnight and will be high in the southeastern sky around dawn, but it will still only be a dot in the sky…unless you have a telescope!
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