Be careful about your language, however. Strictly speaking, Phil’s first two statements are false. Mars is, in fact, much bigger than the Moon every hour of every day… it just doesn’t LOOK as big when we see it from the surface of the Earth. And neither of them are “in the sky” either – they’re in space, or rather the inner solar system.

Nitpicks for sure… but if people can be confused by the whole silly notion of Mars looking as big as the Earth, they can also be confused by a misplaced word or two.

Turns out I debunked it largely using the same points (not quite verbatim, but about as concisely) that the BA used in this blog entry. Of course, by now I’ve read enough of his debunkings to know the script.

You guys: I checked out the facts on this one – it’s ALL TRUE!!!!!!!!

On August 23, 2006 the Earth will be flying directly through the DISK
of a GIGANTIC GALAXY. This will be an event of unprecedented
magnitude!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The galaxy we will be flying through
is 10,000 light years thick and 100,000 light years wide. That’s big
enough to take a flock of geese 3 TRILLION YEARS to fly around!!!! To the naked eye, the galaxy will appear to be ALL AROUND US. Yes, just imagine being able to look out from your house on August 23rd and see a GIGANTIC GALAXY stretching from one horizon to another. Luckily, we will not pass directly through the center of the galaxy, as this would mean CERTAIN DEATH BY BEING SUCKED INTO A SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE!!!!!!!!!!!!! But, we’ll be able to see the center bulge of the galaxy as a gigantic mass of millions of stars and billowing dust clouds near the Sagittarius region of the sky.

(insert a picture of the Milky Way here)

(picture caption:) High-tech simulation of what this galaxy will look
like to the NAKED EYE from your own backyard!!!!!

THE EARTH WILL NOT ORBIT THROUGH THIS PART OF THE GALAXY AGAIN FOR ANOTHER 200 MILLION YEARS!!!!!! That’s 7.6 billion years in MOUSE YEARS!!!!!!!! So get your children and grandchildren out into your backyards on August 23 for a view of this galaxy that their children and grandchildren and their grandchildren’s grandchildren won’t see again for another 6×106 generations!!!!!

Please pass this on to as many people as possible, or else the earth
may really get sucked into a black hole, and it’ll be your fault for
not forwarding the message. Note: because of light pollution in urban
areas, the galaxy may be difficult to view. If we can get EVERYBODY
to turn off all lights on August 23, the galaxy viewing will be an
event of ENORMOUS proportions!!!!

One thing to note, though: he got the Mars/Moon forwarded to him from his mother AGAIN this year. (Bigger sigh.)

Cheers!
Kate

This has penetrated the media a bit too far. Some meteorologist on the Weather Channel said that we’d essentially have two moons in the sky with mars so close. I cannot remember which meteorologist it was but it wasn’t one of the pregnant ones whose belly covers three states.

On a radio show in Bangor, Maine (I’ve been on vacation) both hosts talked about the supposed event as fact. One caller said that her eleven-year old daughter is interested in astronomy and was very excited about mars appearing as big as the moon and, thinking the event was to happen before sunrise today, woke herself up just after midnight to see it. The mother said her daughter was “bummed”. A caller chimed in and said it was all B.S.. Hopefully, this will prevent the girl from loosing more sleep.

I guess people have trouble conceptualizing astronomical distances.

I think we’re gonna have to deal with some of that come tomorrow morning.

I used to get 70 – 100 visitors to my blog each day. In the past few weeks I’ve been getting 200-300 visitors courtesy of the “two moons” dealie. With six hours to go in this day, I’ve had 1,044 visitors. I hope some of them are noticing the bit about the eclipse I included in large type at the end.

“Why, yes, it *IS* true! Stand around outside in the cold and damp for hours tonight until you spot Mars!”

You should notice a distinct decrease in the email/questions next time.

Last year, I made a form-letter that I could cut and paste into the reply.

The year before that I actually invited people over one night to show them.

But like a vampire hunter without a rosewood stake, nothing I do seems to put this hoax to rest.

Qd: no, we can’t get over it.

I also have a good friend who claimed he believed the moon hoax, so I sent him the BA hoax page link and held my tongue. I haven’t had the heart to ask him if he’d read the page yet, but I’m sure he’ll express his cynicism about the government and I can ask him if he still believes in the hoax.

Keep fighting the good fight, don’t let up for a moment!
Rich