SECOND LUNAR ECLIPSE OF 2007: UPCOMING ON THE MORNING OF AUGUST 28:

WHAT'S ALL THIS "DOUBLE MOON" STUFF ?:

Molly has been getting a lot of hits on her lunar eclipse posts brought there by search words such as "double moon" or "double eclipse". What on Earth (or space) is that ? It's obvious that the term I was using to head these posts ie "gimmie a double" in reference to the August eclipse as the second in 2007 was drawing this. But I was still puzzled as to what it could be referring to.

I found the answer on the Astroblog(now added to the Links section under the 'Scientific Links) from a blogger down under (Australia). Turns out that the "double Moon" is part and parcel of the 'Mars Hoax' that keeps resurfacing every summer. All of this relates back to the close approach of Mars to Earth in 2003. An email began circulating at that time saying that Mars would appear as large as the full Moon, hence the "double Moon" tag. The graphic to the left (maybe) illustrates what this hoax is all about. Molly can't see it on her internet viewer, but others have told me that there is a big, fat, red 'Mars' on the left of the illustration. I'd appreciate it if readers could tell me if they see it or not. If you want to read more about the Mars Hoax the Florida Stars site has a page telling all about it. This concerns this hoax's appearance in 2005. A less detailed expose for the 2007 August eclipse can be found at http://blogs.earthsky.org/larrysessions/space/071734/mars-as-big-as-the-moon . So in the interests of clarity I've pulled the "gimme a double" heading from posts about the upcoming eclipse. I'll get around to editing past posts later today. Too bad; it was a cute heading.

Mars will, of course, be visible in the sky at the time of the upcoming eclipse, but its size will be considerably smaller than a full Moon. Speaking of planet positions and such the Astroblog has a great critique of the new Google Sky site. Seems the site is wildly out in terms of planetary positions unless you manipulate the "time slider" at the top to go to the current date. Otherwise the program defaults to July 21st. The Astroblog, highly recommended.

TO READ MORE ON THE UPCOMING ECLIPSE ON THIS BLOG SEE:

AUGUST 21: "WHEN WILL IT OCCUR"

AUGUST 18: "HOW DARK WILL IT BE ? THE DANJON SCALE"

AUGUST 16: "WILL YOU BE ABLE TO SEE IT?"

MOLLY ALSO HAS THREE POSTS ON THE LAST LUNAR ECLIPSE. SEE:

FEBRUARY 16: "LUNAR ECLIPSE MARCH 3RD"

MARCH 2: "LUNAR ECLIPSE FACTOIDS" AND "MORE ON TOMORROW'S LUNAR ECLIPSE"

MARCH 3: "THE MOON AND THE LAST MINUTE"