will i be able to view Mars on the 27th from Baghdad, Iraq? if so, what time and what direction?

Answer 1

Mars is not visible at the moment but is on the far side of the sun right now at a distance in excess of 220,000,000 miles and won't even be visible till December 2006, Next close approach is not till December 2007.

So the story couldn't be much further from the truth and Mars could not be much further from the earth.

You have either read the hoax e-mail going around or heard it repeated as rumours.

That e-mail has done the rounds every August since 2003. August gets called the silly season as there is not much news and so people make news up and recycle old news.

Mars was the closest it has been for 60,000 years on 27th August 2003, There won't be another such Very Close Encounter till 2287 but there is a Fairly Close Encounter every 26 months.

An e-mail is going around suggesting that the close approach of Mars and Earth of 27 August 2003 (see the CNN News story below) will occur THIS 27th August, 2006. It won't!

Such close approaches occur once every 26 months, The Martian Year is 1.88 Earth Years so when we have done 2 and a bit orbits Mars has done 1 and a bit orbits and we are close together again.

Therefore, after an August 2003 Close Encounter, the next one was in October 2005 and the next Close Encounter after that is not until December 2007,

There is no close approach this year.

Central to the hoax going around is the Baron Von Munchausen attention-grabbing fairy story that Mars will look as big as our Moon. Unlikely and untrue,

Which would you rather believe: an anonymous, unsolicited e-mail or the official NASA website?

I went to NASA's Kids Website which told me:

"View in 2006
Mars begins the year as a moderately bright orange star in the constellation Aries. It will grow fainter through the end of summer, when it will disappear in the Sun's glare. Mars will re-emerge in the morning sky in late December. In March, it will pass quite close to Aldebaran, the star that marks the “eye” of Taurus, the bull. Mars and Aldebaran will look like twins, with near-identical color and brightness."

You don't need to be a genius to work out that if it is getting fainter it is getting further away, and if it is disappearing into the sun's glare that can only be because it is on the far side of the sun from us i.e. Mars' position in its orbit is 180 degrees away from our position in our orbit and we are pretty well the maximum possible distance apart in August 2006.

If you know (and you can easily look this up) that the Martian Year is 1.88 Earth Years then again you don't have to be a genius to work out that the one time it WON'T be near to us is an exact number of twelvemonths since the last-but-one time it was close to us on 27th August 2003, We will be in roughly the same place as we were 3 years ago, but Mars will only have done approx 1,6 orbits (1.5957 in fact) around the sun in that time, which explains why it is now on the far side of the sun and at about the farthest distance away it gets,

The fantastical idea that Mars could possibly look the same size as the Moon can easily be refuted. At its closest approach it is 35 million miles away, whereas the Moon averages 238,000 miles away i.e. the distances are in ratio >140:1.

The diameters are in ratio 2:1 however (Mars has a diameter of 6780 kms and the Moon of 3474 kms)

So, think about it: how can the number of arc seconds that Mars' disc presents to the naked eye possibly be the same as the number of arc seconds that the Moon's disc presents?

Mars would have to be only twice as far away as the Moon, i.e. less than half a million miles away, for that to happen.

and

(a) that never happens

(b) If it did happen, you'd soon know about it as giant tidal waves caused by Mars' gravity would sweep the Earth, making the Tsunamai look like a Sunday School picnic.

So not only can you look it up on reputable websites to discover this is nonsense, you can also work it out for yourself that it must be nonsense.

Much closer to the truth is that next March Mars will look about the same size and brightness as Aldebaran, in Taurus, the 13th brightest star in the sky, And they are both red. They will be a matched pair, but Mars and the Moon will never be one.

HERE IS THE STORY CNN CARRIED IN 2003

Earthlings revel in Mars close-up
Planetary approach is nearest in 60,000 years
By Richard Stenger
and Jeordan Legon
CNN
Thursday, August 28, 2003

The last time the red planet was this close to Earth 60,000 years ago, man lived in caves.

No wonder when Mars and Earth synchronized their orbits a few minutes before 6 a.m. EDT Wednesday -- bringing them closer to each other than at any time in recorded history -- thousands of people around the globe went outside to take a peek.

"Knowing that this is once in a lifetime that I can see another planet with the naked eye, yeah, it's great," said Rebecca Horton, a stargazer from Sydney, Australia.

Astronomers say Mars, five times closer now than six months ago, is about 34.6 million miles away, making it the brightest nighttime object except the moon.

"It is possible to get some fairly close encounters every few years," said amateur astronomer Paul Shallow. "It does come around, but not this close."

But with the far-away planet getting so close, some hopeful watchers felt gypped by Mother Nature.

In Oakland, California, where hundreds of space fans paid $11 to attend the Chabot Space & Science Center's "Mars Mania Costume Party," clouds rolled in along with night sky Tuesday. Mars was fogged out, and there were no refunds.

But the good news is that Mars will remain a stunning nighttime attraction for weeks. Most sky watchers can see the planet, presently in the constellation Aquarius, in the southeastern sky soon after sunset, high overhead during the midnight hours and in the southwestern sky before sunrise.

Backyard telescopes may coax features out of the reddish, orange blur, including dark, mottled streaks, which inspired scientists of past centuries to envision intricate canals and advanced Martian civilizations.

The rare configuration of 2003 has stoked renewed, albeit not as fanciful, interest in Mars, which on average cruises 50 million miles farther from the sun than Earth does.

About every 26 months, the two planets pass relatively close to one another, during periods now known as opposition.

What makes this one noteworthy is that Mars, which follows an extremely elliptical or egg-shaped path, is currently at it closest point to the sun during its orbit.

Those two conditions, along with a few obscure celestial variables, have produced an astronomical chance of a lifetime, or several lifetimes actually.

Mars won't pass closer to Earth until 2287, according to astronomers.

Besides awing the curious, the alignment has motivated numerous governments to dispatch missions to the red planet.

Taking advantage of the shorter trip distance, two U.S. and two European probes set off earlier this year, all to arrive at the end of the year.

"Mars fever has caught, not only for amateur astronomers, who are getting their best look at the planet ever and that we'll ever have in our life, but also for professionals, as you know, with the [NASA] Mars Rovers and other spacecraft that are en route," said David Eicher, editor of Astronomy magazine."

Final comment from me: those who say "Let's wait and see if its true on August 27th" are deluding themselves, Mankind has been calculating and predicting planetary orbits and positions with increasing precision for 2000 years now, Kepler's 3 Laws of Planetary Motion have been known for 400 years,

So you don't need to wait till 27th August! The answer is known now. And there is no "well, it might be true" uncertainty about it. You can look it up on the NASA and other reputable websites. Taking refuge in "well, it might be true" is really just a way of refusing to admit and acknowledge that you (and thousands of others) have been duped,

If you still believe it "could" still come true, then what you are saying is that Mars will somehow manage to beetle back around half its orbit in ten days, a distance of some 443,950,000 miles, a journey that normally takes Mars 50 weeks to complete! And its maximum orbital velocity is known to be a mere 59,277 mph. Even at maximum speed all the time (which would conflict with Kepler's Laws) that would still take Mars 44.58 weeks! So it isn't going to happen, is it?

Answer 2

Mars is set till next April .

It's a hoax..
I heard about the Mars hoax and the answer is no . I'll tell you the real scoop on it . In 2003 it was in fact true ! Mars was the closest it's ever been on August 27 2003 .
The next year a New York Observatory reprinted the story again on the August 27th date for a joke . It was hown in the states on the local news and they said " The latest Mars craze is going on again this year , It was said to be started again by a new york observatory as a joke and well it's been listed as spam. And it currently is circulating the internet as a forward . We spoke to our local astronomers to get the story and they showed us where Mars is . Under the horizon till next year. t's completely not true this year , It did actually happen last in 2003 as we all know but this time it's a joke. an April fools joke . No madness intended . "
So it's been floating around for 2 years . Actually there is alot of it going around, crazy emails floating areound of it , observatory phones ringing off the hook .
It has turned into one big hoax . For further reading put in Mars Hoax into google & google news .
Next year the Mars Hoax will float again I bet !

Answer 3

'Mars does come close to earth every two years or, to be exact, every 25.6 months, but that is not going to happen this year', a NASA statement said. Last year, Mars was very close. Three years ago, it was spectacularly close. 'But right now, I'm sad to say, Mars is actually behind the Sun, we can't see it at all', says Chief Meteorologist Burton Fitzsimmons.

On 27 August 2003, Mars came the closest to the Earth in 60,000 years. It came within 56 million km, appeared six times larger and 85 times brighter than normal. It was a beautiful sight then, say many who witnessed the natural occurrence.

On 30 October 2005 (not August), Earth and Mars converged for a close encounter at a distance of 69 million km To the unaided eye, Mars appeared like a bright red star, a pinprick of light, but certainly not as wide as the full moon. It rose at sundown and soared overhead at midnight.

On 27 August this year, Mars will be faint, over 300 million km from Earth and too close to the sun to see.

NASA calculates that Mars' next close approach to Earth will occur in December 2007, but even then it will still be about 80 million km away, not nearly as close as it was in 2003 or 2005. Not until 2018 will our view of Mars be similar to the one that was available in 2003, and it won't be until the year 2287 that Mars will come closer to Earth than it did back in 2003.

Answer 4

Look towards Washington DC, because that is where the war-god worshippers are, and that is why you are in Iraq to begin with.

Really, if you could be easily convinced about the Mars Hoax (google that) without checking your facts, it is quite possible that you enlisted without checking all the facts first. More skepticism in our lives is a healthy thing.

I'm very sorry that you are there. I hope you return safely and whole. No doubt things aren't quite the way you imagined them to be before you shipped out.

Answer 5

Nope, big hoax - look at some of the other answers in this category about Mars.

Mars is currently on the other side of the Sun as viewed from Earth. It won't be easily visible until December or January.

Answer 6

Night time. Up.

Mars would be on the opposite side from the Sun. That would make it near the east horizon at dusk, overhead at Midnight and near the west horizon at dawn.

Answer 7

im sry but i cant help you there but i can say i think its wonderful your a soldier and you are protecting our country! be safe be careful and good luck!
we all love you very much! and we all thank you for protecting our country!