On Tuesday morning, 23rd June 2009 I captured my first image of Mars for 2009. It’s still very early in the season, with Mars still 288 million kilometres away, subtending a tiny diameter of a 4.9″ on the sky.

Mars doesn’t reach opposition until late January, 2010 when it will be 14 arcseconds in diameter – a lot smaller than it was at its closest in 2003, when it grew to 25″ in diameter.

A Tiny Mars, 23rd June 2009

And no, Mars will not be as big as the full moon in August! It’s a hoax

Continue reading for more information about the capture and processing of the image.

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It’s that time of year again, when the emails and powerpoint presentations start going around about Mars being as big or as bright as the Full Moon on August 27th. I’ve received several emails from people asking about it in the last couple of weeks.

It’s a hoax and email spam. You can safely ignore and delete it, and don’t propogate it by forwarding it onto people

Mars, by Hubble

On August 27th 2003, Mars was at its closest to Earth for some time – still a distance of 56 million km, but some communication at the time hyped it up a bit more than necessary (it was never as bright or as big as the full moon).

Every year since then, an email has been circulated around the internet claiming various things like:

• “no human being has seen in recorded history”
• “NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN”
• “The Red Planet is about to be spectacular”
• “Mars will look as bright as the full moon”
• “It will look like the earth has 2 moons”

and that on August 27th everyone should race outside and look at Mars.

It’s all not true. Mars reaches opposition in late January, 2010, and even then it will still just look like a medium-brightness red star.

So tell your friends it’s a hoax and it’s spam, and wait until this time next year when you start receiving them again