Contains:  Solar system body or event
Mars in epicycle - 2014 09 21, Almir Germano

Mars in epicycle - 2014 09 21

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Description

Far, far away Mars. At 222.6 million km distance, it spans only 6.3 arc sec today - smaller than Mercury!

At 31 deg altitude over the west horizon, just bellow Antares, at the top of an epicycle, gave me some few opportunities to image it.

Bad seeing at this altitude, very unsteady atmosphere, moderate to poor transparency.

Anyway, there are Syrtis Major dominating the disc, with a very Africa-like shape...

Hellas at top, almost circular in this strange upright Mars, nearly invisible North polar cap, as can be seen in the WinJupos simulation image at top right.

Hesperia shows a nice contrast with Syrtis Major.

The blown up LRGB image, at top right, shows the murkiness and low quality at 200% upscale...

Bellow, LRGB natural size to the left and RGB to the right.

The four channels, with the specially horrible B one, are at the bottom.

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Mars in epicycle - 2014 09 21, Almir Germano