Hoax or Misunderstanding?

Way back on August 27,2003 the mysterious planet Mars came closer to Earth than it had in nearly 60,000 years, just 56 million kilometers or about 34,000,000 miles.

Since then e-mails have gone out every Aug 27th since saying Mars will appear as large as the full moon. Not so. Mars won't even be visable this August 27th and even if it were it would appear as only a bright yellow to reddish star.

Some say it is a hoax and some say it was just a misunderstanding. Regardless it will not look like the full moon.

Mars will be 35,526,000 miles from Earth on July 27, 2018 its next nearest approach.

Since Mars is only 4226 miles in diameter at its equator and at a close approach is 35,000,000 miles from us and the Earth's moon is 2160 miles in diameter at the equator and about 238,000 miles from Earth, there's no way Mars and the moon can look the same size when Mars is 147 times farther away than the moon.

Too bad though, it would be a great sight.