Hi all

This image was taken on Saturday morning, 5:30am local time in reasonable seeing. Mars was at 38° altitude, and a tiny 5.4" in diameter.

The SPC, Mare Sirenum and Mare Cimmerium are visible in this image.

It's my first Mars for 2007, in what's likely to be a disappointing year in Australia at opposition, when Mars transits at only 29° and grows to only 16" in diameter. Still, good to get the first runs on the board.

Thanks for looking.

Attached Images

20070512-mars.jpg (49.8 KB, 53 views)

__________________
Mike
. mikesalway.com.au - Astronomy and Photography by Mike Salway
. IceInSpace - The Australian Amateur Astronomy Community
. My Bio | My Jupiter 2007 Gallery | My Image Gallery

This is quite incredible at this early time (opposition will be in December). Looks like it's going to be a very good Mars year

Indeed, we in the North seem to be favoured this time round - the pics of autumn 2005 were generally better here than those from the mega-opposition of 2003 due to the higher Dec.

__________________
Non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem.

Hi Mike

This is great work, and so early. Very nice indeed. Thanks for the wake up.

Hi Mike It is a Very impressive photo of the red planet at this early stage, Fine details and colors simply awesome.

very impressive mike
lots of detail there
i think am gona try myself.
took a few of jupiter on the week end but man its way to low was at 19 deg
so did t get much.
but i will try mars for sure if it high enough,,,,

__________________
SK MAK102EQ2
SKP2001HEQ5
legitech pro 4000
dimage g600
ozzmozizz web page

Good shot. Its great to see this, as it heralds the start of what should be a good year for us in the north, unlike jupiter, mars will be high for us northerners, so although only 16 arcseconds, high mag should produce a reasonable size, with plenty of detail. Hopefully no dust storms will upset the imaging at opposition time. Any idea how high mars will be in the uk this year ? once again great shot, under very difficult conditions
Regards Neil

Awesome Mike,

This is very good for such an early start on Mars season!

__________________
Best Regards,
John Chumack
The Chumack Observatories
MPC 838 Dayton Research Station
MPC H66 Yellow Springs Research Station
www.galacticimages.com

Nice!
You even got some surface detail. I didn't think there would be much more than a small red dot. Good work.

Tom

That is very impressive, especially for this early!