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Something interesting should be brought to your attention:

http://planetary.org/news/2005/mars_spectacular_0807.html

Is Mars Spectacular This Month?

No, But Don't Let That Discourage You from Looking Up!

by Bruce Betts and Emily Lakdawalla

August 7, 2005

For the last few months, a factually incorrect email message has circulating around the Internet containing the following text:

"The Red Planet is about to be spectacular! This month and next, Earth is catching up with Mars in an encounter that will culminate in the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history. Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. Mars will be easy to spot. At the beginning of August it will rise in the east at 10p.m. and reach its azimuth at about 3 a.m.... Share this with your children and grandchildren. NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN. "

This "information" combines details that were correct about the August 2003 Mars opposition, when it was in fact closer to Earth than it had been for 60,000 years, with the false and physically impossible claim that it would appear "as large as the full moon." Neither of these statements is true. However, Mars will be very bright and easy to observe during the fall of this year. Here are some of the facts about viewing Mars in 2005:

1. Mars will be closest to Earth in 2005 on October 29 or 30, depending on your time zone. The actual date of Mars opposition -- the moment when Earth and Mars are at precisely the same longitude with respect to the Sun -- is November 7, 2005. But because of the non-circular shapes of Mars' and Earth's orbits, Mars gets closest to the Earth a week earlier.

2. Because of the combination of Earth and Mars' orbital periods, Mars and Earth grow closer every 26 months. Even then, they are still many tens of millions of kilometers (or miles) away from each other.

3. Martian close approaches vary a lot in brightness because Mars' orbit is much more elliptical (less circular) than Earth's. So, sometimes we are "close" to it when it is in the part of its orbit that is nearest the Sun, and sometimes when it is farthest in its orbit from the Sun.

4. Mars was closer to Earth in the 2003 close approach than it had been in tens of thousands of years, but not by much compared to approaches that happened tens of years ago.

5. In 2005, Mars will be farther than it was in 2003, but it will still be a very good apparition. It will get brighter than the brightest star in the sky, but not nearly as bright as Venus. It will still be great to go out and see. (It will be brighter than -2 magnitudes for those who are familiar with that system of brightness.)

6. Mars never appears large enough to appear as more than a point of light to the naked eye (certainly not coming anywhere near the apparent size of the Moon in our sky).

7. Mars will be about 20 arcseconds across during this close approach, which is about 5 arcseconds smaller than in 2003. But, the disk will be quite clear in almost any small telescope. A nice amateur telescope should allow you to see at least a polar cap and some light and dark markings on the surface. It will be southern summer on Mars, however, and the south pole will be tilted towards us, so the southern polar cap will be small.

Please fight the misinformation circulating around the Internet by replying to any well-meaning person who forwards you the Mars message with the facts above. But don't tell people not to look up! We shouldn't need an excuse like "closest approach for 60,000 years" to look up and see the planets.

Right now, if you look to the west shortly after sunset you can see Jupiter and Venus shining brightly in the sky. Venus will be ascending over the coming months, while Jupiter will be descending. On September 1, the two pass very close to each other. Right now, Mars rises around midnight. For a real sky light show, go out on August 11, 12, or 13 to look for "shooting stars;" the Perseid meteor shower peaks on August 12. For weekly information about what's up in the sky, listen to The Planetary Society's Planetary Radio, where in the last several minutes of each show we cover easy things to look for in the night sky.

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What happens if we Kidnap the remixing crew? Will it be released sooner then? :lol:

The remixing crew hasn't been necessary for project completion for a few weeks now. ;)

nice try though.

btw, all you guys planning on using the torrent? cause it would be REALLY nice to have the torrent thriving...

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edit: for comparison, one of the original track lists from November

E1M1: The Hangar (EvilHorde)

E1M2: Nuclear Plant (Xelebes)

E1M3: Toxin Refinery (LordMaestro)

E1M4: Command Control (Mr. Anderson)

E1M5: Phobos Lab (Richter)

E1M6: Central Processing (Beatdrop)

E1M7: Computer Station (DJ Carbunk1e/Sanguineuniverse)

E1M8: Phobos Anomaly (Ralphis)

E1M9: Military Base (DamienKrauss)

E2M1: Deimos Anomaly (Nasenmann)

E2M2: Containment Area

E2M4: Deimos Lab (Mythril Nazgul)

E2M6: Halls of the Damned (Adhesive_Boy)

E2M7: Spawning Vats (Bill)

E2M8: Tower of Babel

E2M9: Fortress of Mystery (En Sabah Nur)

E3M2: Slough of Despair (Larsec)

E3M3: Pandemonium (analoq)

E3M8: Dis (Chester)

1. The Text Music (episode outro) TO

2. The End (Episode 3 Outro iirc) (Bart Klepka)

The red text indicates people still on the project now.

Damn...

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edit: for comparison, one of the original track lists from November

E1M1: The Hangar (EvilHorde)

E1M2: Nuclear Plant (Xelebes)

E1M3: Toxin Refinery (LordMaestro)

E1M4: Command Control (Mr. Anderson)

E1M5: Phobos Lab (Richter)

E1M6: Central Processing (Beatdrop)

E1M7: Computer Station (DJ Carbunk1e/Sanguineuniverse)

E1M8: Phobos Anomaly (Ralphis)

E1M9: Military Base (DamienKrauss)

E2M1: Deimos Anomaly (Nasenmann)

E2M2: Containment Area

E2M4: Deimos Lab (Mythril Nazgul)

E2M6: Halls of the Damned (Adhesive_Boy)

E2M7: Spawning Vats (Bill)

E2M8: Tower of Babel

E2M9: Fortress of Mystery (En Sabah Nur)

E3M2: Slough of Despair (Larsec)

E3M3: Pandemonium (analoq)

E3M8: Dis (Chester)

1. The Text Music (episode outro) TO

2. The End (Episode 3 Outro iirc) (Bart Klepka)

The red text indicates people still on the project now.

Damn...

Wow, we jumped around a little bit too.

And Sly, the music technically belongs to the level in which you hear it first. E2M9 is a bonus level so most people wouldn't reach it, however it does come before E3M1 in order, so the music would belong to E2M9.

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