Mars viewing intrigues students

Students, faculty and Milledgeville citizens gathered on the GC&SU campus to gaze at Mars, which appeared brighter and closer than it will be for the next 13 years.

The crowd of about 60 gathered between the Library and Arts & Science buildings on the evening of Nov. 3 to marvel at the spectacle.

“(Mars is) in the range of 40-50 million miles (from Earth),” said Donovan Domingue, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy.

Special circumstances allowed the planet to appear as a glowing orange ball in the sky and to be closer to the Earth than in will be until 2018.

“Mars is brighter and closer than usual because it’s in opposition right now,” said Domingue. “(This) means that the Sun and the Earth and Mars all have to be aligned to get in this close position.”

The Astronomy Club hosted the viewing. Two telescopes were set up in order for spectators to see Mars at an even closer range.

“When I was a little kid, Mars was always one of my favorite planets,” said viewer Laura Williams, a freshman and pre-mass communication major. “And I always wanted to see it, but my dad’s too lazy to go up to the attic and grab the telescope. (Mars) was really pretty and brighter than anything I’ve ever seen in a telescope.”

“It was very bright,” said Melissa Garner, a freshman and elementary education major.

Other observers had different expectations for how Mars would look through the telescopes.

“I was a little disappointed,” said Lauren Justice, a sophomore and pre-mass communication major. “I’ve never seen anything through a telescope before, so maybe that’s just me, but it just looks like a little dot. To me, it looked blurry.”

Although Mars is not as close as it was in 2003, 34.7 million miles away, the observation this year was still an important event that gave sky watchers in North America and Europe an advantage they did not have in 2003. Mars was further north this year than two years ago. This allowed northern observers a better view of the planet.

However, emails circulated this past summer with false statements about the viewing this year that seemed reminiscent of the Mars approach in 2003.

“The email that was going out during the summer was kind of recycled news,” said Domingue. “It was saying that August of this year, (Mars) was going to be closer than (it would be) in thousands of years. But that was true in 2003, not this year. The craziest thing about (the email) was that it said (that Mars) would look as big as the full moon. And that’s outrageous.”

The email also said that the Mars viewing this year would take place during August, although the planet was truly in full view in late October and early November.

The Astronomy Club hosts sky viewing events every semester for the public and hopes to have an event planned for Spring 2006.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Nov 18 2005. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry