Mars Watch

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About Mars Watch

Welcome to Mars! The original description is below, but we've just added some guideline for tagging photos to make it easier than ever to find the Mars pictures you're interested in. Here goes.

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Tagging rules
1. Please tag all photos you add to the pool with "Mars Watch" (quotes required) and 'Mars'(quotes not required).
2. Add additional tags based on what took the picture. For example, if it was taken by Spirit, add a 'Spirit' tag. Other tags like this may include Oppurtunity, VikingI, VikingII, Hubble, Obsever, Palomar, etc.
3. For Spirit and Oppurtunity pictures add the Sol when it was taken if knowm. An example would be "Spirit Sol23" (quotes required).
4. If it's a picture of the hardware itself, either on Mars or on Earth, add a 'hardware' tag.
5. Finally, add other tags that are descriptive, such as crater, "Columbia Hills," or "home plate."
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A flickr Group with a difference. I am passionate about Mars, I just am, ever since I can remember.I can't really explain it. Well, I can partly. Y'see, we've been dreaming about "Men From Mars" & "Little Green Men" for a long time. I remember watching a movie called "Robinson Cruesoe On Mars" as a kid. I was hooked from that moment on. Then I found out in school that it was a REAL PLACE, up there in the sky, far away. Then I saw "War Of The Worlds" one Saturday afternoon. That just made me worse. Then I learnt about Percival Lovell & his "Canals". Then I watched a programme on British TV called "The Sky At Night" (An Institution in Britain & Ireland for over 50 years now. One night the presenter, Patrick moore ACTUALLY TOLD ME WHERE TO LOOK IN THE SKY TO SEE MARS! It was too cloudy that first night, but the next evening, Bingo! There it was, a little "star" low in the sky near the Western Horizon(non twinkling, because of course "planets" don't twinkle, only stars, that's how you're sure it's a planet you're looking at boys & girls!). Well the hairs on the back of my neck went up, if I had any at the time!

Then Viking's 1 & 2 landed on the surface in 1976 & SENT BACK PICTURES! It WAS a REAL place. More recently we've had Sojourner (1997) smaller, cleverer & cuter than Viking (& he could move around & take MUCH better res pics). More recently we've had Mars Express, Mars Global Surveyor (bothin orbit) & the Rovers Spirit & Opportunity on the surface, still active.

In between "Sojourner" & "S & O" a meteorite was found in Antartica called ALH840001 (the AH stands for the Allen Hills in Antartica). This it, turns out is a piece of Mars. Hidden in it's subsurface are the (possible) remains of very ancient Martian microbes.

Add to this the compelling evidence of there being Lakes, shllow seas, maybe even AN OCEAN on Mars during the distant past (around 4 BILLION years ago!). Well, to put it straight. Life may well have first evolved on Mars, hitched a ride to Earth inside a meteorite (lab experiments have proven Earth Based Bacteria can survive the colossal G-Forces of a simulated "meteorite strike"). Then "seeded" life on Earth. QED - WE ARE THE "Men (& Women) from Mars". We are the "Little Green Men ($& Women). We ARE Martians. Well, at least our very distant ancestors probably were. So if someone describes me as being "An Alien" or not of this World, well I'll have to agree & say "you know what buddy, we all are..."

Hope you enjoy this Group as much as I do already....

flickerly
Steiner62


Achtung! Anything & everything about the Red Planet is acceptable. Mostly it will be shots downloaded from the www, but maybe you are an amateur Astronomer, with a good Camera configured for use with a Scope? You are more than welcome to upload your red planet shots here, even if they are tinchy images! This can also be a forum, via threads for discussions on Mars exploration & imagination. Well I\'m trying to broaden my fellow flicky\'s Horizons, literally1 anyway, even if this is a one person Group that is fine, as long as the images I upload generate some interest. Mars is Humanitys Undiscovered Country, & you know what? it may well be where we all come from ultimately. About four billion years ago. So come into the light Mars, your time has come again. When we get there in 2035 or so, we will be really going home. I hope the Neil Armstrong of the future has his Digital Camera with him, & a valid flickr account...

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Old Tagging guidelines, now deprecated. I'll leave it to the author to remove them
NB! TAGGING _ READ THIS PLEASE FELLOW MARTIANS!!!

OK, please tag ALL uploads with default tag marswatch in future (& any you 've already uploaded, pretty please!)

Also - for more precise searches by members in future pleas add a second more precise tag (examples below)

marswatch/spirit
marswatch/craters
marswatch/artistsimp
marswatch/phobos
marswatch/viking
marswatch/sojourner/marswatch/express
marswatch/poles

etcetera...


ATTENTION FELLOW ADMIN MARTIANS! Will you guys set a good example by doing this NOW & encouraging others to, too?

Thanks Guys,
steiner62

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http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/