A Mars Spectacular Coming Soon?

August 25, 2015

Good morning.  My goodness, have you noticed that there is only one more week left in this month of August?  It just seems like time is flying by even faster than it did last year.  Or maybe that's just because as you age, you realize just how short life really is.

I'm watching the Weather Channel, and it never ceases to amaze me at how cheerful the weather forecasters are while describing ongoing severe weather.   People and animals have lost their homes and for some, their lives, due to wild fires and severe floods.  Yet these happy, smiley people are getting all excited about the beautiful cloud formations and the amazing landscapes created by all the severe storms. 

Don't get me wrong, I think that nature is beautiful.  But, there is a time for getting excited over all this beauty.  I don't believe it is while you are describing the severity and devastation of ongoing wild fires and monsoon floods. 

Let me give you an update on yesterday's mail fiasco.  After investigating the matter, the Post Master called me back to say that the piece of mail had been delivered to a neighbor either Friday or Saturday.  For some reason, the neighbor opened the mail even though you could clearly see in the window on the envelope that the mail was not theirs.  Then yesterday, the neighbor put the piece of mail out for the mail carrier to pick up.  

Supposedly, this neighbor lived very close to us, so I'm wondering why they did not just bring it to us when they first realized that it was not their mail.   The Post Master said that in the future no altered mail will be delivered.  It will first be taken back to the Post Office, sealed in plastic and tagged with a "We're sorry" sticker before being delivered.

Have any of you received an item with this image in your email?  It tells us of an event called "Mars Spectacular" that is about to happen on August 27.  It says that we will be able to see two moons, one of which is really Mars, and that it will not happen again until 2287.

Well, I looked it up on Snopes, and found that this is really just a hoax.   The truth is that Mars did make an extraordinarily close approach to Earth almost twelve years ago on August 27, 2003, when the red planet came within 35 million miles of Earth.  This was it's nearest approach to us in almost 60,000 years. 

At that time, Mars appeared approximately 6 times larger and 85 times brighter in the sky than it ordinarily does.  One version of the story was often reproduced with an unfortunate line break, leaving some readers with the mistaken impression that Mars would look as large as the full moon to the naked eye.  They did not realize that would only apply to those viewing Mars through a telescope with 75-power magnification.

Although Mars' proximity to Earth in August 2003 was a rare occurrence, the red planet comes almost as near to us every 15 to 17 years.  Mars' last close approach was in December 2007, but even then it was still about 55 million miles away from us.  It won't be until the year 2287 that Mars will come closer to Earth than it did back in 2003.  (This information is from Snopes)

Now aren't you glad that you stopped by this morning?  Otherwise you might have been one of those folks out late tomorrow night waiting for a beautiful huge double moon to photograph.  If I hadn't looked it up, I'd have been one of those folks!

Well, that's all the news for this morning.  Now I'm going to enjoy my coffee while I catch up on some blog reading.  So, till tomorrow, Y'all have a fantabulous day.

Hugs, Edna B.