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This web site was last updated on 19th August, 2010. Click here to see details of recent additions and amendments.

Mars will appear 25.11 arc-seconds across on 27th August - about the size of the Moon!

Oh no it won't!!

An email is circulating claiming all sorts of wrong information concerning the planet Mars.  Nearly everything it claims is untrue.  For example, Mars won't appear 25.11 arc-seconds across on 27th August this year - its diameter will be a mere 4.4 arc-seconds!  It won't have a magnitude of -2.9, it will have a magnitude of +1.5.  ("Magnitude" is a measure of apparent brightness).  And Mars will certainly not look as large as the Moon, nor will it rise "at nightfall" - it rises currently at about 10:00 a.m. British Summer Time at the moment so is in the sky during the daylight hours!

This email seems to do the rounds every couple of years or so, and if you receive it it's worth mentioning this to the people who sent it asking them not to spread this hoax any further.

Copy and paste the following email address into your address book so that you can contact us easily and quickly at any time:  

info@carolianastro.org.uk

Read about what's in the night skies in and around our location, or click on one of the tabs, left, for information about us and what we do.

Star charts published on this website were generated by Skywatch/TheSky © Tasco Inc/Software Bisque, Inc. All rights reserved.

Moon images published on this website were generated by Virtual Moon Atlas.