Mars buzzes the Seven Sisters

 

Mars below the Pleiades - 27th Feb 2021 - Canon 600d DSLR on a fixed tripod. A stack of one second exposures at ISO6400 and f=50mm. Credit Joel Cairo.

" Whilst I was carrying out my regular evening security check of the Jodrell Plank Observatory facilities and after spending a moment observing the full Moon rising in the east, I noticed that in the western sky the planet Mars was in conjunction with the open star cluster the Pleiades or Seven Sisters. Even with the moonlight and street lighting causing starlight to be washed out in the night sky, the red of the planet in contrast with the young blue stars in the Pleiades was a wonderful sight to behold. I could not resist grabbing a camera and taking some photographs" - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Latest image - 20 Feb 2021 - from the Perseverance Rover on the surface of Mars - Credit NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU 

" Mars looks so small on Joel's image of the planet. As viewed from Earth and when seen against the vast backdrop of the night sky, it has the appearance of a bright red star. In reality it is a cold rocky desert world with a diameter just over half that of our world" - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory