As the world is all set to see the longest total lunar eclipse of the 21st Century, in India, the all stargazers, are concerned if the heavy monsoon clouds will let them see the celestial spectacle. As without clear skies, the public can miss seeing this glory, Moon.
But as per an amazing coincidence, Mars will also observe the closest distance from Earth in 15 years on this lunar eclipse of the July. Mars and Earth are closest to each other when Mars is at its nearest point from the Sun and Earth is goes far away from the sun — in their respective orbits.
Mars will be in opposition to the Sun, On 27 July that means it will be opposite the Sun in Earth’s sky. a planet is said to be in opposition when the Sun, as per the Astronomically, Earth and the planet all align nearly for this 1 straight line.
the planet rises above the eastern horizon during sunset, On that night, on the other hand, this position is not necessarily to be very near to the earth.
This will occur just 51 days previous then this will pass through perihelion — that is touted as the closest point relative to the Sun in its orbit. As a result, as Space points out, the minimum distance between Mars and Earth is all set to shrink to the 57.58 million kilometers on 31 July.
the Red Planet will shine brightly at magnitude -2.8, w On that day, that means this will be also going to blaze twice as bright as Jupiter, but that will be anyway dimmer than Venus.
In other terms, the public can easily see the Mars with an unaided eye under a clear sky. In 2003, it was The last time the Red Planet was so close to the Earth.
on 27 August 2003, At 3.21 pm (IST), the center-to-center distance between Earth and Mars was the shortest that was lasted for the 60,000 years, and the two planets will not come this close again until 2287.
The planets had come a little over 55.76 million kilometres apart and The last time they were this close was in 57,537 BCE, that was an event quite historic in around 2003.
on the other hand, July’s closest approach is going to be also very special.
“These two planets come almost this close every 15 to 17 years. The distance between Mars and the Earth ranges from about 100 million kilometres and 56 million kilometres. Earth and the Red Planet were about 59 million kilometres apart in 1988, and they will be about 57.6 million kilometres apart on 27 July 2018,” the director of the Nehru Planetarium in Mumbai, Arvind Paranjpye, wrote in an email to a leading media portal.
The best place to be in to view the Red Planet is South America, South Africa, and Australia.
Observers in the southern hemisphere will be also going to see this lunar eclipse. And major observational facilities such as the Hubble Space Telescope are always there to support U when U are keen to see the lunar eclipse.
Paranjpye also cautions against a hype around this particular event. “For serious astronomers, this event does offer an extraordinary opportunity to study Mars. However, the layperson who might expect to see dramatic details of the surface of Mars is likely to be very disappointed.
Since we are in the middle of the monsoon in India so the night will be the cloudy one. additionally, it would take a telescope equipped with a lens or mirror in order to see the Mars and this is going to be the thrilling
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