Mars pass catches eyes of Bates College viewers
The last time Mars came this close to our planet, Neanderthals were roaming the Earth.
LEWISTON – The next time Mars comes this close to Earth, perhaps Bates College will have classes and dorms on the Red Planet. That will be in 2287.
This year however, members of the Bates faculty were content to hang around campus right here on Earth and take a look through a telescope.
One by one Wednesday night, they stepped up to the lens. Some gasped with amazement. Others were less than impressed.
“I expected to see something more than a monochromatic disc. I wanted to see little people dancing up there,” said psychology professor Dick Wagner.
By 9 p.m., roughly three dozen people gathered at the corner of Bardwell Street and Campus Avenue for their chance to view Mars at its closest since 57,617 B.C.
Under the direction of Gene Clough, lecturer in geology and physics, they peered through the Celestron telescope aimed at the planet sitting low but glowing bright in the sky.
“You won’t see any little green creatures walking around,” Clough warned them.
Even though this was the closest Mars has been in 60,000 years, the planet was still 34.6 million miles away Wednesday night.
The last time Mars came this close to our planet, Neanderthals were roaming the Earth. That fact was enough to wow some who came out to gaze through the telescope.
“This is a great moment,” said lecturer Gerda Neu-Sokol. “It’s fascinating. I’ve already looked and I want to look again.”
Some who took a look through the telescope thought they would see a giant, red orb with a polar ice cap at the top. Some thought they would see craters. In fact, astronomers say Mars is tough to view at any given time.
“You don’t see a lot of detail. It just looks like a bright light,” said 13-year-old Emma Ambrose, who came with her mother. “Still, it’s pretty impressive.”
Clough borrowed the telescope with 8-inch mirror from the Physics and Astronomy Department at Bates. He put out a notice around the campus earlier in the week and on Wednesday night, the crowd began to appear just after dark.
“This kind of thing is always very popular,” Clough said.
The lecturer stood by the telescope, answering questions and making adjustments when necessary. He explained that, while Mars was a mere 34,646,418 miles away, that was only fractionally closer than it is on any given August.
The trick to viewing it, some said, was enjoying the bright color of the planet and truly grasping that it is a once-in-a-lifetime event. Even Wagner, skeptical at first, understood that.
“If you let your imagination go,” he said, “it’s a lot of fun.”
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