- Comment
From Nick Balaskas
Nikolaos@YorkU.CA
8-2-3
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- Take a minute to find a nickle and a quarter from the
loose change in your pocket and lay them down on a table. Although the
nickle has a diameter of about 21 mm and the quarter about 24 mm, they
are both nearly the same size.
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- Later this month when Mars will be at its closest to
Earth it will have an angular size of about 25 arc seconds. 26 months earlier
in June of 2001 Mars had a size of about 21 arc seconds. Well, if we represent
the size Mars will be in 2003 by your quarter, then the size Mars was in
2001 could be represented by your nickle. Not a big difference, eh?
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- As our planet Earth and Mars move along their orbits,
every 26 months our two planets are on the same side of the Sun and thus
closest to each other. So if you miss this opportunity to see Mars through
a telescope during this close encounter, you, your children and grandchildren
will have another similiar opportunity just 26 months later - not thousands
of years!
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- Although Mars is now a very bright red star-like object
low in the south-east (for observers like me in Toronto), you do not need
to rush out and buy an expensive telescope of your own to get a good glimpse
of the "Red Planet". Simply phone your nearest observatory, college/university
or astronomy club and arrange to see it thorugh one of their bigger and
better telescopes!
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- Nick Balaskas
Physics and Astronomy York University
Subject: NASA Info
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- The Red Planet is about to be spectacular! This month
and next, Earth is catching up with Mars in an encounter that will culminate
in the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history. The
next time Mars may come this close is in 2287. 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 as 60,000 years before it happens again. The encounter
will culminate on August 27th when Mars comes to within 34,649,589 miles
of 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 arc seconds
wide. Mars will be easy to spot. At the beginning of August it will rise
in the east at 10p.m. and reach its azimuth at about 3 a.m.
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- 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 12:30a.m.
That's pretty convenient to see something that no human being has seen
in recorded history. So, mark your calendar at the beginning of August
to see Mars grow progressively brighter and brighter throughout the month.
Share this with your children and grandchildren. NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL
EVER SEE THIS AGAIN
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- Comment
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- By Alfred Lehmberg
www.alienview.net
7-31-3
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- With all respect to Ms. Ferguson, I have -every- intention
of seeing the next encounter, and the one, even, after that. The cosmic
limits suggested by our embryonic technology make it abundantly clear that
millions now living may never have to die... in the first place. In the
second is a -well- and credibly documented "acceleration of everything"
that we perceive... to some exponential denouement of the "greater
reality." to qualify that longevity... And thirdly, absolute statements
are wrong, invariably... in spirit, in practice, and in fact.
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- I suspect this approach of Mars must have presently unguessed
at effect upon our self-aware human sentience, and these effects are undreamed
of by our juvenile aggregate imagination. Moreover, I suspect that the
planet's approach is further symptomatic, or a component of (or provides
a metaphor for), our similar approach to the aforementioned cosmic denouement
or changing of an Age...
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- I don't know, but the sense of it is strong within me,
and many more -significant- others. Change approaches!
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- As to that new reality spoken of, significant others
-also- propose that human beings are capable of effecting that reality
in turn, and further, are =best= served cultivating a reality that is open,
tolerant, forward looking, egalitarian, liberally educated, and involving
as much of a *healthy* population as is possible! We'll make our -own-
reality, and that new reality -better- have a huge middle class!
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- We live in an age, presently, that has always lacked
the =informed= consent of its individuals! This facilitates the promotion
of a distracted -ignorance- on its "clueless-by-design" citizenry,
and does so while fleecing that rank and file, busily, with agencies, institutions,
and corporations that -disrespect- them, openly, as individuals. This begins
to change...
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- The file sharing masses of the communication age (that
genie who won't be rebottled!) provide an antidote to that programmed disrespect
for individuals, a -preparation- for individual respect kindled at last,
and is the limitless -power- behind that inexorable acceleration mentioned
in the first paragraph... all powered by individuals.
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- Consider, if aggregate humanity was just a -little- more
on the ball (?), we could have timed a major thrust at colonization for
our sister planet's close approach and used her as a stepping stone to
the waiting stars. That's an opportunity that we've let slide auspiciously
by... how many -other- efficacious opportunities are we letting by (for
the good of the few at the expense of the many) as we approach, relentlessly,
a climax of an one corrupt age, and the birth of one all new!
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- Think about -that- as Mars brightens in the sky, and,
individually, prepare!
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- Lehmberg@snowhill.com
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