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

Jef Allbright jef at jefallbright.net
Wed Jun 8 23:57:35 UTC 2005


Damien Broderick wrote:

> 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.
>
I saw this about a week ago and understood it to mean that *with a 
modest 75-power magnification*, Mars would look as large as the full 
moon to the naked eye.

Makes sense?

- Jef



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