[extropy-chat] [ASTRO/BS] Mars as big as the moon?

[Damien Broderick]

At 04:08 PM 6/8/2005 -0700, AG wrote:

>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. At a modest 75-power
>magnification
>
>By August 27, Mars will look as large as the full moon
>to the naked eye.

Let's think about this for a fraction of a second. At perigee and 
opposition, Mars is said above to be 25.11 arc seconds wide. The Moon's 
apparent width averages 1800 arc seconds in diameter.