Mars on the 9th and 10th of October 2020

127mm Meade Apo- refractor, x3 Barlow lens and QHY5-11 planetary camera. 15% stack of a 3minute video clip. Credit: Reggie Stax our astro-student at the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

The night of the 9th and the early hours of the 10th October were clear and cold. The 'seeing' was not good as the jet stream was causing atmospheric turbulence over Lowestoft. When we watched the live feed from the telescope on the laptop screen we could see the image of Mars wobble. When Reggie analysed the data the following day, he noted that the red and green channels were surprisingly sharp but the blue channel was a turbulent blur. Reggie has made a good job of processing the data and we look to him producing even better images on calmer nights in the future. -  Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.