Mars gazing phenomenon hits NZ

By SIMON RANDALL

Mars gazers are flocking to New Zealand's observatories for a rare glimpse of the Red Planet in its closest orbit to earth for 60,000 years.

Stardome Observatory in Auckland's One Tree Hill Domain has seen visitor numbers to its night-time shows treble since launching its Mars programmes two weeks ago.

"The response has been phenomenal," Stardome chief executive Peter Thomson told NZPA today.

"In a normal month we'd expect 2000-2500 visitors in the evenings. Now we're looking at three times that."

The observatory has had to put on three to four Mars shows a night to meet demand, and was looking at adding more, he said.

The programme includes a planetarium show, a Mars talk and, weather permitting, viewing the Red Planet through one of the observatory's 50cm telescopes.

"People are absolutely keen to see it through the telescope though," he said.

The observatory saw similar visitor numbers for a week during last year's planetary alignment. "But it was nothing like this," Mr Thomson said.

The Mars-gazing phenomenon has also thrown an unexpected financial lifeline to Wellington's Carter Observatory, which has had record visitor numbers attending its evening programme, chief executive Jacqueline Merchant said today.

The non-profit observatory, which has sat atop the city's Botanical Gardens since 1922, was looking at moving to the more accessible and frequented Wellington foreshore, she said.

"We do a great job on the smell of an oily rag normally. So from a business point of view Mars has been wonderful.

"We've been packed every night it's been clear (weather)," she said.

(EDS: Carter's attendance figures were not immediately available.)

"There has been a huge range of ages, lots of families coming along."

Most Mars-gazers coming to the observatory were Wellingtonians, while overseas tourists were normally the most common visitors, she said.

Views of Mars were generally excellent, with its polar ice caps and mountains appearing quite clearly.

The last time Mars came as close was around September 12, 57, 617BC when it passed about 55.72 million km away.

People would do well to catch a glimpse of the Red Planet while they can -- astronomers estimate the next time it will be this close is 2287.

- NZPA