Mars in August hoax email

Hi everyone, That darn "Mars will be bigger than the moon" email is circulating again this month. Grrrr. Every year I update my Mars in August web page in case people google around for help determining if it is fact or fallacy. http://www.otastro.org/Mars2005/ note the angry red font. ;-) Yesterday our web server stats went astronomical - lots of people were looking at my Mars page. Lo and behold, I discovered that my page was linked to an MNSBC article, titled Mars Hoax Lasts Five Years. Here's the article - it is a really well written one: http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/08/26/1294160.aspx If anyone asks you about Mars, you can refer them to the article. Our next Sidewalk Astronomy events will be September 5th in Pasadena and 6th in Monrovia. This weekend we'll be doing our dark sky observing at Lake Sonoma in Sonoma County most likely, while visiting family in the North Bay. For any of you hankering for some dark sky nights, I can recommend the public star party in Joshua Tree National Park, Hidden Valley picnic area. It's open to the public, starts at 7:30 p.m. with a star talk and video projection, and then lights out, and stars and milky way galore! Here is the local Yucca Valley Astronomy club's website. http://www.andromedasociety.org/ You'll find the picnic area near the Yucca Valley/Joshua Tree entrance to the park. There are nearby campsites at Hidden Valley campgrounds, probably first come first serve. It's a quarter mile walk to the picnic area. See you in a couple weeks out on the sidewalk! Jane -- Jane Houston Jones Senior Outreach Specialist, Cassini Program JPL - 4800 Oak Grove Drive, MS 230-205 Pasadena, CA 91109 818-393-6435 jane.h.jones(a)jpl.nasa.gov Cassini SOC http://soc.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm What's Up? http://education.jpl.nasa.gov/amateurastronomy/index.html