purplecat

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I have no idea why I am so completely mind-blown by the idea that there is daylight on Mars because, well, duh! - maybe it is growing up with all those pictures of the moon-landing against a dark sky. But I am completely mindblown by the idea that there is daylight on Mars.

Image from NASA, obviously.

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From:

fredbassett

You're right!

It is rather mind-blowing, even though it shouldn't be.

I was brought up on the Martian books of Edgar Rice Burroughs, so I want to know where all the folks are from that!

From:

purplecat

We actually watched John Carter the other night. We enjoyed it a lot though we felt there are better action adventure movies out there. TBH, I thought the guy who played John Carter came across as a bit blank, the movie would have been better with a more charismatic lead. I've never read them but I think once I've finished reading the entire Holmes Canon on my ereader I might load up some of the Burroughs out of copyright stuff.

From:

fredbassett

Interesting. That's very similar to the views a lot of my friends have had. I think I'll but the dvd and watch it.

I adored the books, and still do, although they will no doubt come over as horribly dated. I;d love to know what you think when you read them.

BTW, I don't know if this would be possible, but I have a Sony ereader I almost never use because there is nothing on there I want to read (It came as a cast off from my niece) and I have no idea how to download stuff like that to it. Would you be able to show me if I bring it in Sept? I would love to have teh Martian books there. It would save delving into the bowels of my attic.

From:

purplecat

Yes of course! No problem.

From:

fredbassett

That would be fabulous. I've tried the online manual and failed miserably, but so has Mr FB, so I feel less bad about that.

I'll have my laptop, so it that's needed it'll be there.

I would love to have the Martian books and try to maybe d/l some fanfic I like.

Thanks.

From:

purplecat

Yeah you'll need the laptop for the way I do it and the Calibre free software (it's easily downloaded at the time but if you guys want to install it in advance it will save us a bit of time). It must be said I never touched the software Sony provided for using the ereader, even before I bought the thing I'd been warned off attempting to use it.

From:

fredbassett

I can download Calibre, no problem.

Thanks!

From:

daniel-saunders.livejournal.com

Whenever NASA sends photos from Mars, the thing that always strikes me is how much it looks like a Doctor Who quarry, just with a bigger horizon. All those years of jokes about the programme being cheap (not to mention the new series avoiding quarries like the (space) plague, bar The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit) and that's actually what alien planets look like!

More seriously, the other thing that always occurs to me is how difficult it is to get a sense of scale with no known landmarks or items. Are the things in the foreground small rocks quite close or big rocks quite far away? Probably the former, but I've seen Martian photos where it's a lot harder to tell.

From:

purplecat

You know, you're right. The resemblance to a Doctor Who set is probably a part of the disconnect.

From:

reggietate.livejournal.com

It's a strange thought, isn't it? I imagine it's kind of gloomy compared to Earth, but there has to be some light, obviously. And the sky isn't purple (see Quatermass and the Pit *g*). I'm quite disappointed!

From:

purplecat

According to NASA the above is an "as is" pick, so it isn't that gloomy. I found the pick by following a link from the digitally-recoloured version they put up on Astronomy Picture of the Day.

From:

nyarbaggytep.livejournal.com

Ooh, it's funny to look at it, I don't know why either, I think I just imagine planet = in space, space = dark, therefore planet = dark.

From:

purplecat

Exactly. Planets obviously equal dark somewhere in my mind despite that being nonsense.

From:

ladyofastolat.livejournal.com

The Clangers's planet is dark, therefore all planets are dark. All real planets, anyway. Captain Kirk kept visiting places with lurid red or green or pink skies, but that wasn't real, not like the planet the Clangers lived on.

At least, that's the best explanation I can come up with for the fact that when I hear "planet," I think of something grey, with craters, against a dark black sky. Oliver Postgate has much to answer for.

From:

purplecat

Unnaccountably I was large unaware of the Clangers until I went to university (at least as far as I'm aware - I suppose it's possible there was some deep traumatic Clangers related experience that I have suppressed - though I was traumatised by Trumpton and I still recall the show).

At any rate I do not think, in my case, that Oliver Postgate is to blame. I think

daniel_saunders may have put his finger on it when he pointed out it looks awfully like an alien planet from Doctor Who or Blakes' 7 and so, clearly, it must be fake.

From:

mysteriousaliwz.livejournal.com

Have you seen this one? It's a 360 panoramic one you can navigate around by clicking & dragging the cursor, and you can see the sun in the sky. Fascinating :)

The landscape looks relatively featureless compared to Earth though.

http://www.360cities.net/image/curiosity-rover-martian-solar-day-2#148.79,35.38,110.0

From:

purplecat

That's splendid. I'd not seen it before thanks! I imagine the lack of vegetation contributes a lot to its apparent featurelessness.

From:

mysteriousaliwz.livejournal.com

I think you have a point there. That and our weather systems/water. When you think about it, a lot of our landscape is carved out by river valleys, and going further back, glaciers.

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