Mars 2022

Mars on 09-12-2022 - 127mm Meade Apo Refractor, 3x Televue Barlow and QHY5LII c planetary camera. A stack of 3000 video frames. Software used: Sharpcap4, PIPP, AS!3, Registax6, AffinityPhoto2, Topaz Denoise AI and FitsWork4. Credit: Pipp Stakkert

Mars on 30-11-2022 - 127mm Meade Apo Refractor, 3x Televue Barlow and QHY5LII c planetary camera. A stack of 6000 video frames. Software used: Sharpcap4, PIPP, AS!3, Registax6, AffinityPhoto2, Topaz Denoise AI and FitsWork4. Credit: Kurt Thrust

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Mars shining red and bright in the constellation Taurus just above Orion the Hunter. Astro-modded Canon 200d DSLR with Sigma EX widefield zoom lens on a Star Adventurer equatorial mount. A stack of 15 x one minute lights at ISO1600 and f=11mm. The images stacked  and edited using Affinity Photo, Starnet GUI, Topaz Denoise AI and GradientXTerminator.

" 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