Tuesday, 20 December 2022
A Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from the Jodrell Plank Observatory at Lowestoft
Monday, 19 December 2022
Mars 2022
" Mars has been shining red and bright in the night sky and has been moving steadily west until it came to opposition in early December 2022. Mars having been overtaken by Earth on its inner orbit, has now an apparent retrograde motion and is moving east amongst the stars of Taurus. The weather over Lowestoft has been mixed and unfortunately we have only managed two nights, one in November and one in December when we could image Mars using our large refracting telescope. Both polar icecaps are visible on the image captured in November but by December the southern ice cap has been diminished in the relative heat of the southern hemisphere summer. The enormous shield volcano, Olympus Mons is clearly visible in the image captured in December. The later image also shows increased carbon dioxide clouds in the Northern hemisphere" - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory