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Mars and the Ten Pence Piece


spudicus

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Is this true, or am I just being suckered???

Spud

I followed the link Spud and couldn't find anything that said that :scratch:

Perhaps they have changed it.  Either way, Mars will not come close enough to appear to the naked eye, even as large as a pea and most definitely not a 10p piece.

Currently, my trusty StarryNight program shows Mars with an apparent diameter of about 14 arc seconds; this will increase to around 20 arc seconds when it is at its closest on, I think, 7th November. 

Hope that helps,

Steve  :)

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That site seems respectable and I can't see the claims of a massive Mars? In fact, it has this piece:

"INTERNET MYTH

A RUMOR spreading through the Internet states the disk of Mars at the 2005 opposition will be as large as the Full Moon!

FALSE!

As noted previously the Martian disk will appear only about 1/90 the apparent size of the Full Moon when near the 2005 November opposition. (Mars appeared about 1/75 as large as the lunar disk at the 2003 August opposition.)

So, if one used a telescope with a magnification of about 90x, the image of Mars in the telescope would appear about the same size as the Full Moon appears without a telescope.

For more information about this myth, see "Mars Hoax"

Note: The Mars hoax message also contains other misleading information, especially material on the 2003 opposition but published as if applying to the 2005 opposition."

Perhaps it was another site? Either way, it's not true!! :)

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