On Fri, 03 Sep 2004 00:44:11 GMT, "Martin R. Howell"
wrote:

Here's one for the books. A week or two ago, I was listening to the radio
one morning. . .NPR, I believe. Much to my amazement, there was a woman
reporting on how bright and close Mars is right now. She said that it was
very near the moon in the constellation Gemini and this would make it most
easy for anyone to spot. The reporter then asserted that Mars was
presently the brightest "star" in the night sky and continued that it
wouldn't be this close again for 80 years or so.

As the details were being disclosed about the planet's orbit and proximity
to the earth, I felt as if some silly mushroom which had somehow gotten
into my system during those crazy 60's had held back a little extra
surprise for me.

This was all over the news and the Internet. Somebody picked up a story from
last year's Mars opposition (a pretty inaccurate story, as it turns out) and
started circulating it again, with the year changed from 2003 to 2004. I don't
know if it was a deliberate hoax or just some stupidity.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com