Were the two moons visible on August 27 at 12:30 a.m. or 12:30 p.m.?

In 2003, a hoax circulated around the Internet predicting that at 12:30 a.m. on Aug. 27, 2003, Mars would appear in the night sky the same size as the moon. The hoax took advantage of the Mars close approach, the time at which Mars and Earth come the closest.

Although the distance between Earth and Mars was the smallest since 57,617 B.C., measuring only 34.64 million miles away, it was still many times more distant from Earth than the moon, which was orbiting at about 240,000 miles from Earth. The appearance of Mars was more similar to that of a bright star than of a second moon.