Planets

Jingguo · Post by **Jingguo** » Mon Mar 01, 2004 1:48 am

Hi Guys, Jingguo here. I realise that recently a few planets have arrives at opposition. Last year, it was Mars and Saturn. This year, its Jupiter. Surprisingly only Mars made the headlines. Just wondering why is that so? consider Saturn's oppposition is at Dec31 2003, which i manage to get a chance to view it. And the coming Jupiter opposition is at Mar 3. thanks alot.

blurblock · Post by **blurblock** » Mon Mar 01, 2004 6:57 am

Maybe even without opposition Saturn and Jupiter can be seen quite clearly?

fizzy123 · Post by **fizzy123** » Mon Mar 01, 2004 8:31 am

8) Hmmm..... I think it is because mars is always appearing as a small disk in the eyepiece, thus opposition is deemed as somehing 'big' and important. Besides, mars have always recive much publicity as recent space exploration and many famous fictions have been written about mars.

universe24 · Post by **universe24** » Mon Mar 01, 2004 9:55 am

This is because we can only observe the Mars at it opposition every ~2.2years. Compare to Jupiter or Saturn, they will reach opposition every year. Other factors, as mentioned by fizzy123.

harlequin2902 · Post by **harlequin2902** » Mon Mar 01, 2004 11:25 am

Hi Guys, Jingguo here. I realise that recently a few planets have arrives at opposition. Last year, it was Mars and Saturn. This year, its Jupiter. Surprisingly only Mars made the headlines. Just wondering why is that so?

Hi Jinguo,

The reason for last year's (August) Mars opposition hitting the headlines was because not only was it at opposition, at that point in time, Mars was at it's closest position to Earth for the first time in recorded history ! (according to the pros, the last time it ever made such a close approach was 60,000 years ago). The next time it makes an even closer approach than what we saw in August 2003 will be in August 2287.

Regards,

lsy_98 · Post by **lsy_98** » Tue Mar 02, 2004 11:06 am

Hi Jinguo,

The reason for last year's (August) Mars opposition hitting the headlines was because not only was it at opposition, at that point in time, Mars was at it's closest position to Earth for the first time in recorded history ! (according to the pros, the last time it ever made such a close approach was 60,000 years ago). The next time it makes an even closer approach than what we saw in August 2003 will be in August 2287.

Regards,

Thanks Sam. I will put a note to tell my grand..grandson that. May be they are looking Earth from Mars.