Saturday, October 29, 2005

Big, Bright Mars Swings Close by Earth

Big, Bright Mars Swings Close by Earth



Mars is at its closest to Earth on the night of October 29-30, passing 43.1 million miles (69.4 million kilometers) from our planet around 11:25 p.m. on the 29th Eastern Daylight Time. However, Mars will look just about as big and brilliant for a couple of weeks before and after that date.

A musical tribute from Jonathan Richman.

Here come the Martian Martians
And they're riding on their Martian bike
Well, we have to find out right now
What kind of ice cream do the Martians like?
Here come the Martian Martians
Why staying in such a cheap hotel?
Maybe we should help out the Martians
Looks like the Martians ain't doin' too well.


UPDATE: Neighbor and I broke out the telescope and got a decent look, despite the godawful light pollution of our parking lot (it was hard to see even 2nd magnitude stars). Didn't see Marvin waving at us, or the octopus-shaped dust storm, just a nice red disk.

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