PLANET’S NEWS VALUE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23866, 21 July 1939, Page 6

PLANET’S NEWS VALUE

IT ALL DEPENDS “In 1924, when Mara made a comparatively close approach to the earth, an enthusiastic public displayed an interest in the planet which made astronomers feel that they were perhaps some use in the world after all," remarked Mr M. Geddes, director of the Carter Observatory, when lecturing upon Mars to a Wellington audience “This year,” he went on to say, “ only faint rumours have got abroad so far regarding the great event, and people are only now becoming aware (hat within the next few weeks we shall be closer to Mars than we have been for 15 years, and closer than we shall be for another 17 years. "In 1924 the close approach was heralded by a burst of cable messages from Europe and America announcing the facts of the approach and the programmes that it was hoped to carry out. This year there has been none of this, simply because the approach is not at all favourable for northern hemisphere observers. Mars is at present 26 degrees south of the eauator so that in sou+hern England <t appears only some 12 degrees above the horizon. Views of it there will be spoilt by the hare which is always found close to the horizon, and it is only in southern hemisphere countries that reallv good views of I*' l nlai.et will be obtained. It is safe to say that practically every observatory in the southern hemisphere vvii' b_ watching Mars in the next few weeks during this approach which is giving them such a great advantage.”