Sunday, December 23, 2007

The Moon and Mars

If you are reading this the evening of Sunday, December 23, 2007, stop screwing around on the computer and go out and find the Moon. That's the big bright round thing in the sky. And the little bright reddish-orange thing next to it? Mars! (Not Venus, as some have thought; Venus can never be that far in the sky from the Sun - and, therefore, Venus can never be next to the Full Moon, which is always opposite the Sun's position in the sky!)

It's a beautiful sight, well worth seeing. If you missed it, Phil Plait has some information, links, and appreciations here.

Have you gone out to see it yet? If so, now you may enjoy this classic Staples commercial from 2000, featuring the SnoBot robot. "I love her! Weeping, weeping... "

4 comments:

hedera said...

OK, just to see what was there, I went out and looked, and you're right, it's gorgeous. That's the first time in my life I've ever seen Mars and (a) realized what it was, and (b) seen the color. It really is reddish-orange. Way cool!

Lisa said...

You always post a picture of the gifts you made...umm, why no pic?! Merry Christmas!

OddAngelCharon said...

We saw it last night above the polar bear enclosure at Indianapolis' Christmas at the Zoo event.

Hope you're keeping warner than we were!

D.B. Echo said...

Lisa, there's a couple of reasons there. There were no "work" gifts this year - things are different at work now, and that's not the sort of group I'm in nanymore. I did maake gifts for some of my friends, friends I used to work with. But I'll alo be sending versions of these gifts off to other people, so I didn't want to ruin the surprise just yet. Still, as I've missed getting them out for Christmas, I suppose maybe I will do a reveal soon.

Of course, in a sense, I already have posted pictures of these items. Eight out of nine of them, anyway!

Charon, you do get around! Glad you got to see the Moon and Mars. And polar bears, too!