Posted by Davin Flateau on 2 Nov 2005 at 3:56 pm.
Filed under General, Astronomy, Exploration Place.
See Mars at Exploration Place through our telescopes from 6-9pm on Friday, November 4, and put your mind at ease!
It seems like just about everyone got a copy of that recent hoax email that claiming that Mars was going to come very close to earth and grow “as big as the Moon,”,and cause all kinds of havoc for our planet. Hilarious! But crazy email claims aside, there IS a close approach of Mars going on right now. But you can come out of the basement, and turn your lights back on; it’s distance from Earth: 43 million miles (when it reaches its closest last Saturday),. So it won’t get anywhere near moon-sized - it’s still a tiny yellow light in the eastern evening sky. But it is nice and bright, and you might be able to make out a few more details through a telescope. Sky and Telescope magazine, as always, has a great article about the event.
The last close approach of Mars was in 2003, when it came to within 35 million miles of Earth. In one night, we had over 3,000 visitors form a line that wrapped around Exploration Place to look through our telescopes at its closest approach in 60,000 years. If you missed your chancethen, now’s your time to see it as it comes almost as close as that famous event. The Red Planet won’t be this close again until the year 2018.
We’ll be performing a special edition of Stars Over Kansas in the CyberDome Theater that evening at 7pm to talk about Mars, the close approach, the fantastic new discoveries coming from the Red Planet, and the new probes that are en route. We’ll also have activities for kids of all ages. To make it even more enticing, we’ll have our exhibits and theaters open, including our Pink Floyd Cosmic Light Shows for even more “cosmic lights”, so you can take in everything else we have to offer. Mars viewing and activities are free, but the CyberDome shows and the exhibits will be regular price.
So hope to see you down here!
Davin Flateau
Stars Over Kansas » Mars Observing at EP 11/4 6-9pm on 2 Nov 2005 at 4:07 pm: 1
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