BellaOnline Forums Education Astronomy NO, Mars *never* looks the size of a full Moon!

It's the last day of August and Mars has not looked the size of the full Moon. So if you've had the email or seen it on FB or other social media, it's too late for it to happen this year. In fact, if we should ever see Mars that large, we would be in Big Trouble, because it would mean that Mars has left its distant orbit and is coming very close to us. Eek!

This nonsense has been circulating since 2003 when Mars was at a close opposition. When a planet is at opposition it's at its closest to us. I remember that opposition. Mars looked like an exceptionally bright red star. It was lovely, but still looked no bigger than a star.

Someone had suggested that through a telescope Mars would look as big as a full Moon. That's quite different to just looking up at the sky. And I don't know why we get this every August even when Mars is not at opposition - such as now.

So what does Mars look like from Earth now? Erm, I don't know. The sky charts show it low in the eastern sky (in Cancer) around dawn. Besides the fact that I'm not an early riser, I have a hill to the east which obscures the dawn sky. Anybody else seen it lately?

I've pinned a photo taken very near the Mars opposition in 2003 when it was comparatively close to us. It shows the Moon and Mars in the sky. (We call it a conjunction when you can see two heavenly bodies appear to be close together.)

Now that the world is taking a bigger interest in Mars, it is probably becoming a bigger image in mind, too.

LOL. Good point, Susan. Of course Mars looks very big indeed if you're a Mars rover or a Mars orbiter. And if you were about half a million miles from Mars, it'd look about the size of a full Moon. But as it's more like 35 million miles away, it doesn't look big to the Earthbound.

I guess it's pictures like these of Mars that make it feel bigger and closer.

I love the photos and paragraphs in your Pinterest photos - thanks for sharing ...

Thank you, Susan, I'm glad that you like the Pinterest photos and descriptions. I look at other people's pictures, but often find it disappointing if they don't say anything about them.