For some students, it was just a small white dot in the sky. For others, it was a once-in-60,000-years opportunity.

Nearly 250 students crowded the Quad on Wednesday from 10:15 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. to view Mars through a 5-foot-long telescope.

Mars was 34.67 million miles away Wednesday night, making it the closest and brightest it has been in 59,619 years, according to Space.com.

‘You see, Earth is moving around the sun, and Mars is also moving around the sun, but they are moving at different speeds and in different orbits,’ said Babar Qureshi, an astronomy teaching assistant. ‘Sometimes Mars goes away, and sometimes it comes close to the Earth – it really depends on their elliptical motion, and it just so happens that it’s close at this point.’

Some students were surprised by what they saw.

‘I was expecting more and more of a reddish color, but it was still a great opportunity,’ said Jesse Pafundi, a freshman in The College of Arts and Sciences. ‘It was white ’cause of all the clouds and all the lights reflecting over the city.’

Pollution in the Earth’s atmosphere and light pollution contributed to the white tint, said Jamila Butt, an astronomy instructor.

Without magnification, Mars appears as a brilliant star in the southeast of the night sky and should remain visible through September.

Despite the high turnout, some students and instructors questioned why the event wasn’t held at Holden Observatory, located behind Crouse College. The telescope in that facility has a higher magnification than the telescope used on the Quad.

‘The university does not give us the responsibility of the observatory,’ Butt said. ‘[The telescope in Holden Observatory] can see the stars and other planets more clearly. We can see Mars, but it is still just like a small moon.’

Louis Buda, the technical services manager in the Physics Building, said that there were a number of legitimate reasons the observatory was unavailable.

‘It’s not very big, and we’re sharing it with the [University Senate] Recorder’s Office,’ Buda said. ‘Also, the telescope is old, which was very good at the time, but there are newer telescopes that are much better.’

Buda said that the building would have been unable to accommodate such a large crowd, and light pollution in that area would have been another obstacle to view Mars clearly.

Despite any disappointment about the facilities, students and instructors were still enthusiastic about the event.

‘Not in another lifetime will you be able to see it this well,’ Butt said.

Published on August 28, 2003 at 12:00 pm