Did the earth move for you?

Planetary Encounters
August 27/28 2003

Quivering above the tree line, against the bejeweled black velvet sky, a blue
light sparked out of the larger and more intense white light. We waited to hear
the rotor blades but were puzzled when the light suddenly switched to tungsten
orange and hovered quietly towards us.

Lying on our backs on top of an ancient barrow tomb in Oxfordshire had seemed
like the perfect place to watch the orbital dance of two planets. It had taken
60,000 years for Mars to get this close to us; its last dramatic appearance was
to an earth populated by hunting people living in caves. We are witnessing this
spectacle with the naked eye while lying on the grass-covered mound, our heads
supported by an upright monolith. Sheltered from the whipping wind through the
towering sentinel beech trees, we asked ourselves, was this a hallucination?
Was this a visitation by other worldly beings? Or was it perhaps a sprite
playing tricks with our eyes.

Earlier, visual echoes of debris had streaked past our vision as space rock
collided with the outer edges of the Earths orbit. But now this intriguing
hovering light began pulsating, thinning, flashing many colours until being
squeezed and then plumped out to form a warm red and orange glow. This was an
energetic wide screen display of lasers. Entranced, we both soon realised that
the vision before us was that of the infamous red planet manifesting in all of
its aspects, - the astrophysical, the mythological, as well as the astrological.

Mars, chosen as the Roman god of war was demanding the earth's attention, and
you would think that a close encounter with a planet consisting of 95% carbon
dioxide and with temperatures of down to minus 130 degrees would have us all
looking skyward to track its spectacular transit. But how many of us completely
missed this extraordinary dazzling event? If you have ever thought about the
magical colours of the Northern lights, then now is the time for you to look
up.

Ask your friends and discover how few of us bothered to put our heads out the
window before deciding that it was not worth sitting outside warmly wrapped up
with blankets away from artificial lights. Richard Asquith, a Newspaper
commentator summed it up, ""To have a total indifference to so a rare
opportunity would be a depressing dullness of soul". Surely one of the most
important aspects of self-change has to be a slowing down to notice what is
happening all around us, and this is one opportunity none of us should ignore.

Missing the point as usual, the mainstream media concentrated on predicting a
cloudy unimpressive viewing or interviewing snap happy scientists playing with
multi million pound telescopes.

To prepare for your own mission to Mars, ignore all distractions that will stop
you from taking the time to see this awe-inspiring event. Turn off your TV,
computer and radio and get out to see the best free show in town every night
this week. From 10pm set your sights on the southeast and seek out the largest
object in the celestial theatre. This will be our closest other planet and over
the following hours until its ultimate height around 1am, your naked eyes will
be treated to a show that’s really out of this world.



By Paulo and Miche
Intrepid, Asteroid Activists
www.undercurrents.org