By Doug Fletcher,Staff Writer

Psssst, have you heard the one about Mars?

If you’ve heard it’s getting cozy with its neighbor, the Earth, don’t believe it.

It’s a close encounter of the phony kind.

“That’s an Internet hoax,” said Alan Davenport.

He’s the director of the Maynard F. Jordan Planetarium at the University of Maine in Orono.

Davenport says the message circulating in some circles via e-mail about Mars’ being closer to Earth than it has been in recorded history is two years too late.

The great “opposition,” as it was called, took place on Aug. 27, 2003. Even then, said Davenport, the Red Planet wasn’t close enough to appear in the night sky as intense as the moon, as some people hinted it might.

The Internet-based hoax about Mars coming calling this month has prompted enough questions, though, that no less a stellar authority than NASA has put out a press release debunking the modern myth.

And, adds NASA, no one should be disappointed that Mars won’t be anywhere near as close as the moon.

“If Mars did come close enough to rival the Moon, its gravity would alter Earth’s orbit and raise terrible tides,” the space agency notes.

Davenport says Mars will be close enough to Earth in November to stand out in the night sky. It’ll be roughly opposite the sun then, he said. People who want to get a long-distance look at Mars then might try checking the southern sky about midnight, he suggested.

We do expect a different but nevertheless spectacular sky show in about a week, however.

The annual Perseid meteor shower reaches its peak between 2 a.m. and dawn on Friday, Aug. 12. The meteor show began in July, but NASA says the display a week from Friday should be the best for viewing the colorful fireballs as they streak across the dark summer sky.

Perseids get their name from the constellation Perseus, the area of the sky where they seem to fly out from. NASA says their source is the comet Swift-Tuttle.

And for those who still long for a glimpse of Mars, NASA says it’ll be “shining like a bright red star” in the constellation Aries – that’s right next to Perseus – as the meteor shower climaxes.

Find Mars and the Perseids by looking to the east.

Oh, you can differentiate Mars from nearby stars because Mars doesn’t twinkle. “It’s steady,” NASA notes. “You stare at Mars and it stares right back.”