It was touted as a 'spectacular' view of Mars and a 'once-in-a-lifetime event.'

But the e-mail that promised stunning views of the Red Planet during its 'closest approach' to Earth turned out to be nothing more than a hoax.

What was spectacular was how quickly the message whipped around cyberspace -- fooling thousands of people who began preparing for Saturday's 'amazing' historical event.

"Earth is catching up with Mars in an encounter that will culminate in the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history," boasted the e-mail which was titled 'Mars Spectacular.'

"On August 27th...Mars will look as large as the full moon," it continued.

And finally: "No one alive today will ever see this again."

The hoax created a frenzy around the world and astronomers like David Dodge from Vancouver's Pacific Space Centre were inundated with floods of phone calls.

"This e-mail is either a perpetration by a very ignorant person or its a hoax, but whatever it is it's absolutely wrong," Dodge told CTV News.

And a Vancouver telescope shop saw sales rocket as excited star gazers came in to purchase gear for the big non-event.

"I think we had three dozen people come in and about a dozen we've sold scopes to," Bojan Tic of the Vancouver Telescope Centre told CTV News.

The fact is, Mars did make a close pass to Earth, but that was on August 27, 2003.

On that day it came within 56 million kilometres of Earth -- the nearest the two planets have been in perhaps 60,000 years.

However, Earth and Mars are indeed set for a close encounter this year.

On October 29 at 10:19 a.m. ET, Mars will be 69 million kilometers away from Earth and should look like a bright red star, but certainly not as wide as the full Moon.

And for those who are disappointed the 'spectacular' sight won't actually be happening, it's worth bearing in mind that if Mars did come close enough to rival the Moon, its gravity would alter Earth's orbit and create disastrous tides.

Victims of the hoax can perhaps take some comfort in the fact that on October 29, 2005, Mars will shine brighter than anything else in the sky except the Sun, the Moon and Venus.