Breaking News: Mars Visible to the Eye Tonight

[Chris Peterson]

From KDLT News in South Dakota:

Grab the cameras, tonight we will experience a pretty neat phenomenon as Mars will be visible to the eye for the Opposition of Mars!

Who writes these things? (I didn't post this to the breaking science news page for obvious (I hope) reasons.)

[neufer]

• A Midsummer Night's Dream Act 4, Scene 1

BOTTOM: The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath

• not seen, man's hand is not able to taste, his tongue to
  conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dream was.

[geckzilla]

Brandon Spinner, Chief Meteorologist.

[Ann]

Right. Yesterday morning, when it was very misty, I saw Mars peeking through the mist, but nothing else.

So Mars was actually visible to the eye yesterday! Good try, though.

Ann

[Ann]

Oh, well, Mars. You can believe anything about Mars, right? Little green men, canals... I seem to remember people used to claim (just a few years ago) that Mars would look as bright in our skies as the full Moon.

Ann

[Nitpicker]

At least he was correct about it being at opposition. Never mind that it will be slightly closer and appear bigger to us on the 14th, or that Sirius is brighter at the moment (as is Jupiter and the Moon), or that Mars is visible to the unaided eye almost all year round, except when it is passing near the Sun from our point of view. Yay Mars!

Edit: actually the "Opposition of Mars" is a pretty lazy way to phrase it, but I have been known to be a tad nitpicky.

[BMAONE23]

From KDLT News in South Dakota:

Grab the cameras, tonight we will experience a pretty neat phenomenon as Mars will be visible to the eye for the Opposition of Mars!

Who writes these things? (I didn't post this to the breaking science news page for obvious (I hope) reasons.)

Main Stream Media MSM
or
Lame Stream Media LSM

I vote for the Latter

[neufer]

From KDLT News in South Dakota:

Grab the cameras, tonight we will experience a pretty neat phenomenon as Mars will be visible to the eye for the Opposition of Mars!

Who writes these things? (I didn't post this to the breaking science news page for obvious (I hope) reasons.)

Main Stream Media MSM or Lame Stream Media LSM

I vote for the Latter

I doubt that "KDLT News in South Dakota" was what Sarah Palin
was thinking about when she coined the term "lamestream media."

[bystander]

At least it's not "bigger than the full moon!"

[geckzilla]

It kind of reads like that though, doesn't it? It's almost like it was written from an edited version of one of those viral mails.

[charlieo3]

Oh, well, Mars. You can believe anything about Mars, right? Little green men, canals... I seem to remember people used to claim (just a few years ago) that Mars would look as bright in our skies as the full Moon.

Ann

Since what we see of Mars and the Moon is in both cases reflected sunlight, is there some point in the orbit of Mars where its surface brightness does in fact appear the same as the surface brightness of the Moon (if we were to see just a spot of the Moon the same size as Mars)? Or do we always see slightly less reflected sunlight from Mars simply because the sunlight reaching Mars is slightly more dispersed due to the inverse square law?

[Chris Peterson]

Since what we see of Mars and the Moon is in both cases reflected sunlight, is there some point in the orbit of Mars where its surface brightness does in fact appear the same as the surface brightness of the Moon (if we were to see just a spot of the Moon the same size as Mars)? Or do we always see slightly less reflected sunlight from Mars simply because the sunlight reaching Mars is slightly more dispersed due to the inverse square law?

The Moon and Mars have similar albedos, so we're never going to see Mars with a higher surface brightness, unless perhaps you very carefully choose a low albedo spot on the Moon and measure it when the Moon is at a low phase angle. But that's sort of cheating.

[neufer]

do we always see slightly less reflected sunlight from Mars simply because
the sunlight reaching Mars is slightly more dispersed due to the inverse square law?

• Yes.

[charlieo3]

Thanks, Chris and Art. That's pretty much the conclusion I had come to in my "thought experiment," but it's nice to have it confirmed by someone else's thoughts, too. By the way, I just caught a glimpse of Mars a few minutes ago...it was blood red, about 7 deg above the horizon, not nearly as bright as the Moon...just before it disappeared again into the clouds. I'd love to see it in conjunction with the Moon and Spica tomorrow night, and, oh yes, the eclipse, but it looks like it will be raining here all night and into the a.m.