Posts Made By: Curt Renz

Thanks, everyone. And now here is the picture from the following evening showing the Old Moon in the New Moon’s Arms 2.5 days after conjunction. Again, Jupiter and Mercury below are in the scene. It was taken from Arlington Heights, Illinois on 2008 DEC 29 at 17:17 CST.

Larger versions of both pictures suitable for wallpapers can be downloaded from: http://www.curtrenz.com/astronomical.html

Thanks for the kinds words from everyone, and for the fine additional pictures contributed by other enthusiasts.

And now here’s my capture of the Moon aged 4.5 days above Venus with Mercury and Jupiter (right) below. It was taken from Arlington Heights, Illinois on 2008 DEC 31 at 17:13 CST.

Here are my predictions for Los Angeles and San Francisco. The times are when the center of Venus is expected to be on the lunar limb. The zenith angle is the position of Venus on the lunar limb measured counterclockwise from the zenith.

Los Angeles
Immersion 05:07:12 PDT Zenith Angle 148.9°
Emersion 05:58:05 PDT Zenith Angle 261.3

San Francisco
Immersion 05:11:20 PDT Zenith Angle 137.6°
Emersion 06:05:30 PDT Zenith Angle 266.6°

Bill Possel said:

Well, it's going around again this year. The email/powerpoint presentation that Mars will be "spectacular" in August. Something about Mars appearing to be the size of the Moon. "Closest approach in recorded history!" Has anyone else seen this? Where does this originate?

Yikes, that outdated e-mail is getting recirculated mighty early this year. It applies to an event that occurred in August of 2003. Usually we don’t start getting these posts until August. The problem began when the originator of the message failed to mention the year. Often it comes with information that has become highly distorted by many reinterpretations. It’s true that in 2003 Mars came its closest to Earth in over 50,000 years and won’t come closer until 2287. It’s also true that through a 75 power telescope Mars appeared as large as a naked-eye Full Moon. Some reprints fail to mention the need for a telescope. Mars reaches opposition from the Sun relative to Earth on an average of 2.135 years and comes especially close every 15 or 17 years. The opposition of 2018 will be quite good, especially from the southern hemisphere. Below is a graphic I created to illustrate the relative positions among the Earth, Mars and Sun over a number of oppositions.

I’ve since learned that that editorial review by “Floyd” of The Monuments of Mars at amazon.com is actually from the back cover: http://www.amazon.com/Monuments-Mars-City-Edge-Forever/dp/1583940545/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242803261&sr=1-1#reader

Some folks are using the term hoax. I’d call it a comedy of errors.

If I were a police profiler, here is what I would hypothesize. I see a teenager who had recently gotten into both astronomy and producing PowerPoint presentations. When he read reports of Mars making a close approach in 2003, he saw an opportunity to impress and excite his friends by announcing the astronomical event with a PowerPoint presentation. He cut and pasted some text which included dates but not the year, which seemed unnecessary since it was published that year. For dramatic effect, he mentioned the need for magnification on one slide and then displayed a magnified image of Mars next to a Full Moon on the next slide. Although it was not his intent, some sloppy readers took no notice of the mention of the need for magnification. Meanwhile, the presenter overlooked the power of the internet grapevine to keep information circulating even after it had become outdated. His leaving out the year was an error, but it’s understandable if he cut and pasted from sources that also left out the year.

While my attempt to profile is pure speculation, I nevertheless feel the term hoax is inappropriate. Hoax implies intentional deceit. I can understand how some of us in the astronomical community get annoyed by this Mars announcement every year and want to “blame” somebody. Let’s not blame the perpetrator for intentional mischievousness, but instead for unbridled enthusiasm which got him trapped into overlooking possible consequences.

This Mars misunderstanding is not a matter of great importance. Distortions of political or larger scientific questions can be more harmful. Nevertheless, the lesson to be learned is that the originators, redistributors and consumers of information on the internet need to always be careful, keep a skeptical eye open and apply astute judgment.

Thanks for the mention of the Jupiter/Neptune conjunction, Duane. Below is a graphic I created to illustrate the total occultation of Neptune by Jupiter in 1613. I’ve employed a fictional X-ray vision to show where Neptune was behind Jupiter. Galileo missed an opportunity to become the first person to witness a mutual occultation or transit between planets. Of course, Neptune had not yet been discovered. Although Galileo had marked it as a star on his diagrams of Jupiter and its satellites.

Actually, only one person has ever reported witnessing a similar event. That was John Bevis at the Royal Greenwich Observatory who in 1737 observed Venus while it was occulting Mercury. He missed the actual immersion due to passing clouds, and the pair set before emersion. Further down is my illustration of that event, again employing a fictional X-ray vision.

I’ve created an Antares occultation graze map for the northeastern USA and nearby Canada in addition to the wider view for the Americas. I’ve also made graphics with preview images and data for New York, Miami and Dallas in addition to Chicago. They can be seen by clicking: http://www.curtrenz.com/astronomical.html

Observers on the graze path will be able to see the star winking on and off as lunar hills and valleys pass by. Those south and west of the graze path will witness a full occultation including both an immersion and emersion. Folks on the other side of the path will be shut out of the occultation but will see a close passage.

The Full Moon during the night of 2010 JAN 29/30 will be at perigee and at its closest distance from Earth for 2009-2010 with 356,593 km separating their centers. Not only will the Moon be in opposition to the Sun, but so will Mars. That night the especially bright Full Moon will pass about 6° or 7° south of magnitude -1.3 Mars, depending on your location. Sorry, Mars observers. At least we “lunatics” will appreciate the situation. But it should prove to the credulous multitude that Mars at opposition does not appear as large as a Full Moon, LOL. For my graphic with data for the next 15 Full Moons click: http://www.curtrenz.com/astronomical then go to the Moon page.

Here’s my photo of the big Full Moon rising this evening. That’s an airplane immediately left of the Moon and Mars to the far left. It was taken from Arlington Heights, Illinois at 17:18 CST. That was 15 minutes after sunset and 39 minutes after moonrise. The Moon was at an altitude of 5.7° and Mars 5.9°. They were separated by 7.0°.

The contrast could have been much better, but as initiator of the thread with a clear sky I had to show you something. Now it’s your turn!