Rare Planetary Lunar Occultation (PLO) in December
Those of you who follow popular science news in the papers may be aware that a few years ago Mars was remarkably close to the earth in a once in a lifetime event.
Here's an e-mail explaining it from back then:
Come 12:30 UTC on the 10th of December the red disc of Mars (first with its hazy atmosphere) will begin to obscure the bright disc of the moon. At 14:30 UTC it will be fully obscuring the moon and we'll be able to see the red disc of Mars without interfering bright moonlight!
So, break out the blankets and spend a night out under the Australian sky for this phenomenal event!
EDIT: On Tidal Forces
A work colleague asked about how this will affect tides.
Yes, it will be a monster tide - the alignment is coincidentally happening very close to the full moon. The Sun will be almost opposite the Moon but the tide will not an unmitigated disaster as you might think. Our Moon is a relatively huge satellite when compared to the Earth, and Mars' radius is about the same as the diameter of the Moon.
Mars is passing in through the orbit of the moon only briefly and its tidal forces are inversely proportional to its distance from the earth. As the tidal effect of Mars won't have time to move water very far there won't be time for the "tidal swell" of Mars to sync up with the swell caused by the Moon.
What we will see is a slight increase in the high tide and second smaller high tide (around half an hour after the normal tide in Australia).
EDIT: And to be clear, this was a nonsense post
Here's an e-mail explaining it from back then:
*Two moons on 27 August*I slept through it - but fortunately we have an even rarer event coming up later this year. Mars won't be quite as close as last time, but this time it will be in line with the moon!
27th Aug the Whole World is waiting for...*
Planet Mars will be the brightest in the night sky starting August.
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 of earth. Be sure to watch the sky on Aug. 27 12:30 am. 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.
Come 12:30 UTC on the 10th of December the red disc of Mars (first with its hazy atmosphere) will begin to obscure the bright disc of the moon. At 14:30 UTC it will be fully obscuring the moon and we'll be able to see the red disc of Mars without interfering bright moonlight!
So, break out the blankets and spend a night out under the Australian sky for this phenomenal event!
EDIT: On Tidal Forces
A work colleague asked about how this will affect tides.
Yes, it will be a monster tide - the alignment is coincidentally happening very close to the full moon. The Sun will be almost opposite the Moon but the tide will not an unmitigated disaster as you might think. Our Moon is a relatively huge satellite when compared to the Earth, and Mars' radius is about the same as the diameter of the Moon.
Mars is passing in through the orbit of the moon only briefly and its tidal forces are inversely proportional to its distance from the earth. As the tidal effect of Mars won't have time to move water very far there won't be time for the "tidal swell" of Mars to sync up with the swell caused by the Moon.
What we will see is a slight increase in the high tide and second smaller high tide (around half an hour after the normal tide in Australia).
EDIT: And to be clear, this was a nonsense post
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