This image was taken at 24 July 2003 by Ron Dantowiz and it was clear that Mars was by no means as BIG as Moon
MARK YOUR DIARY/CALENDAR
ONLY ONCE IN YOUR LIFETIME
Two moons on 27th August 2010 .
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It will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. This will cultivate on Aug. 27 when Mars comes within 34.65M miles off earth.
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It will look like the earth has 2 moons. The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287. Share this with your friends as NO ONE ALIVE TODAY will ever see it again.
Many have received this email about the imminent great astronomical scene of the Mars which is claimed to happen tonight and to be as big as our Moon. The email is only right about one things – the distance.
Please let me crack this myth step-by-step if you allow me.
This so-called Mars hoax started since 2003 when Mars was closest to Earth in this century at 27th August 2003 where the distance was only 55 million km, the nearest in 60,000 years. During that time, Mars would look about 75 times smaller than the Moon. According to Science@NASA, in 2003, someone reasoned that if you put in a 75x eyepiece into your telescope, Mars would look as big as the full Moon as to the naked eyes.
What happened next was that someone who decided to pass this message around was a bit lazy and truncated the magnification part and the year. And the result was “It will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. This will cultivate on Aug. 27 ……” which is what you received in your inbox.
So I hope that you are now clear about this fuss. A picture worths thousand words. Check out the photo below to get a better idea of the sizes of Mars and Moon.
Moon at the middle of picture, to its one o'clock is Venus and to its five o'clock is Mars.
The only advantage I can think of this message is that it encourages people to get out from their sealed room and check out the gorgeous night skies.
Further reading: The Mutating Mars Hoax at Science@NASA, Distance From Earth to Mars @ Universe Today
Biggest moon you’ll see until Nov 2016The moon looks so big during the sunset that I almost crash into it
My buddy, agogo said so to me when he saw the moon while driving to Victor’s house for TOEFL tuition.
Indeed, the moon looked really big today. Well, you guess the reason. Hmm.. Don’t worry that the moon will collide with our earth although it looks like there’s possible to happen. In fact, both the moon and earth are seperating apart by 2cm per earth year.
The moon looks biggest when it’s near the horizon. I believe it’s because of the refraction caused by the particles of the atmosphere. For your information, from our line of sight, atmosphere is the thickest at the horizon and thinnest at the zenith (overhead).
Therefore, if you want to take fantastic photo, I suggest you do it when the moon is near to the horizons, either it’s rising or setting will do.
Let’s go into some facts. The moon is 14% bigger and 30% brighter than the lesser full moon earlier of the year. It looks biggest as it’s now at the perigee. Perigee is a point where the moon is closest to us at its eclipse orbit which is 50,000 km closer to us than the other side. Simply said, when moon is at perigee (perigee moon), it’s closest to the earth. The opposition of perigee is apogee.
Well, enjoy your show. Tomorrow, we will have Geminids meteor shower!! 
The Great Conjunction of Venus, Jupiter and the crescent Moon at 7:41pm UT+8 on 1 Dec 2008
Taken by Nokia N82
What a coincidence! Look to the southwest before the twilight ended. You would appreciate you walk out for a view.
Venus, Jupiter and Moon will get so close in a part of sky 3º across. A binocular may fit them in the field of view. This event doesn’t require any skill to enjoy, just seize the moment, away from your keyboard now and make your eyes wide open.
Go now! (Now’s it’s the time for people in timezone GMT+8)
Cloudy night on 14 Sept 2008
Well, it’s really a very belated Happy belated Mid-Autumn Festival（中秋节）! Another unofficial name is Mooncake Festival. Chinese celebrates this festival by eating mooncake and enjoy watching the moon. Some even lift off the “Kong Ming” Lantern with their wishes on the lantern to the sky.
It’s on 15 August every lunar year. (14 September in 2008). On this day, the moon is usually the biggest througout the year. The moon is called as Harvest Moon in western countries.
However, the largest moon (Harvest Moon) didn’t fall on 14 September but instead the next day. So, we don’t have the largest moon during this year Mooncake Festival due to the moon was still between the perigee and apogee.
At the end, please, enjoy my artwork of moon. The silhoutte was a tree not less than 50m from me.
Join NASA’s return to the Moon by sending yourself to the Moon!
Alright, it’s just your name. 
Just sumbit your name to the website below, you’ll be given a certificate to show your support of the mission. The names will be collected and placed onboard the LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) spacecraft.
LRO’s objectives are to find safe landing sites, locate potential resources, characterize the radiation environment, and demonstrate new technology. This will be a historic mission.
The deadline of submission of names is 28 June 2008.
http://lro.jhuapl.edu/NameToMoon/
Sequence photo I made for the 4 March 2007 total lunar eclipse
The lunar eclipse starts at 0100 until 0152 UT on 21 Feb 2008 (2200 EST or 1900 PST on 20 Feb 2008). The totality will last for 52 minutes. We’ll have partial lunar eclipse this coming 16 August and 31 December 2009. Americans will have a total eclipse again on 20-21 December 2010. Yet to check for us.
*Americans have 3 total eclipses in less than a year and we had 2 as we’re not favoured this time.
Continue reading ‘Total Lunar Eclipse on 20-21 Feb 2008′
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