Ah well..no poets amongst us

John

I’m always the guy who hits “reply to all” for the “Mars as big as the Moon” E-mails. My advice, if you ever see that run! (I don’t know where but run…not that it’ll help it’s just the spirit of the thing…)

rod

BTW: STILL can’t find Mars with my Binos but I”m not giving up.

I had to have the same conversation with my father once about waking up in a bathtub full of ice with your kidney removed. He insisted he heard about it happening “on the news.” When pressed, he finally admitted to a friend hearing about it “on the news” and then to his friend e-mailing him the “story.” He finally broke down and admitted that it was likely an urban legend, but then added “but it probably happened somewhere.” *face palm*

Ignorance is not a crime. It can be cured. Stupidity just seems to go on forever.

P.S. How does one submit links/suggestions to Phil? I posted a link to one of the comics in the “Mars as big as the Moon” series in the “How to get NASA funded” thread.

Oh, BTW, today is the 43rd anniversary of the earth making a complete orbit about the sun since the date of my birth.

EDIT TO ADD: Uh oh, the preview is looking “odd”, did I dork it up again?

MARS-MOON NO POEM (so far)

Oh Moon, oh Mars up in the sky
You are both so beautiful to mine eye.

John

I also had this one (in the blackout) :

neighbour: what’s that your looking at
me: Mars
neighbour: can’t be, it isn’t big enough
me: yes, it is. Now where did you hear that nonsense?
neighbour: email
me: it’s not true, that’s as big as it gets
neighbour: really?
me: really, want to see it through my scope
neighbour: sure
…
neighbour: ooo, nice!

I’ve also pointed out the orbits don’t line up every year because a Mars year is a bit less than 2 Earth years. So this could only happen at best every other year.

But nothing helps like a visual, so I actually showed this to someone. Try this:

http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?orb=1&sstr=1

Click the orbits drop downand select in order: No Orbits, Earth and Mars
Turn off the distance label
Zoom in a bit to get Ceres out of the picture
Set the wayback machine to Aug 27th 2003 (use date or just run it backwards)
Rotate the frame so Earth and Mars are front and centre
Set the interval beside the date to 1 year.
Step forward and back.

Hmm, while in 2009 Earth Mars are on the same side of the Sun they’re nowhere close. And won’t be until 2019, 2036, etc.

Mind you IFF Mars ever came close enough to be as large as the full Moon it would be well inside the stable part of Earth’s Hill Sphere. And IFF that ever happened …. Dunt Dunt Dah … call out Bruce Willis and company.

I’d read that the original comparison was made by an astronomer, who must be hiding their head in shame at being so badly misconstrued. Of course, I read that on the Internet …

@Dean #32 Pity they picked a year where Saturn’s rings were nearly edge on

@Mark#51 Just so you don’t feel left out, please post all your relatives email addresses. I pretty much guarentee your relatives will be sending you copies of the email before long

“Oh Moon, oh Mars up in the sky”

John (Author of new Moon Atlas — more on my name above)

If people are interested in space, go with it! Yes it may be from a terrible source, but if it gets people positive about space exploration and manned missions, I say that’s a good thing. A few more interested people, and a few less saying “Why waste money in space when we have problems on earth, blah blah blah”

Give ‘em some real facts about Mars:
Methane coming from the surface that might signal life
Probable hematite pebbles just laying about for mining
Percolate in the soil, ripe for making oxygen or fuel – the same substance Russia used to use for back-up oxygen generators

That’s more interesting than Mars being “Super close”