>Tom,
>
>>The size cannot be correct. I got this from a fellow worker, who got it from the Internet. The Internet is the place where everything you read is true! :)
>
>How many times have you heard: "But I saw it on the Internet!" Well, that proves it for me (:-P
>
>>During the August 27 oposition to Mars, the red plant will be bright and spectacular.
>>However, the Internet mis-information about it's apearent size is laughable.
>>
>>Mars will be 25 arcseconds across.
>
>Snipped the math lesson. And the election thread drift.
>
>>By the way I will bet it will be foggy in the San Francisco Bay Area and we will miss the entire event.
>
>Fog is quite a problem here in this valley also. I do have a location <10 miles from here that is pretty good and provides some decent viewing. But the light pollution is bad - I can point to within a few degrees to Syracuse, Binghamton, and Utica/Rome. Really kills the viewing near the horizon. Have you seen http://www.darksky.org/ida/darksky/darksky_map.html before? Doesn't seem fully functional today for some reason...

Jim;

Between fog and light pollution of Silicon Valley, it is not easy to see anything in the sky. Just ten miles east of me is Mt. Hamilton, where Lick Observatory is located. I often go there to see things of interest. Stargazing can be an iffy thing but I do have some great pictures I took with my Pentax 6 x 7 cm camera over the years.

Tom