Below is an excerpt from an email that I saw today about Mars. I am more than just a little excited about the prospect of seeing the Red Planet with just my eye. Go science!!! The best part is you have all month to remember to look up. Unlike the once in a lifetime comet sightings...
In real life, the Red Planet is going to be the closest to earth in recorded history. Earth is catching up with Mars in a close encounter.Due to the way Jupiter's gravity tugs on Mars and perturbs its orbit, astronomers can only be certain that Mars has not come this close to Earth in the last 5,000 years, but it may be as long at 60,000 years before it happens again.
Mars will look as bright as the full moon to the naked eye and will be easy to spot. At the beginning of August it will rise in the east at 10 p.m. and reach it's azimuth at about 3 a.m. By the end of August when the two planets are closest, Mars will rise at nightfall and reach its highest point in the sky at 12:30 a.m.
The encounter will culminate on Aug. 27, when Mars comes to within 34,649,589 miles of the Earth and will be (next to the moon) the brightest object in the night sky. It will attain a magnitude of -2.9 and will appear 25.11 arch seconds wide, at a modest 75-power magnification.
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