This period of perihelic opposition of Mars is a unique opportunity to photograph the details of the surface of the planet. Mars is then only 211 469 M km from Earth and displays a magnitude of - 2.61. (brighter than Jupiter!)

On this occasion, we decided to visit the Pic de Chateau-Renard Observatory, in order to benefit from the admirable performance of the 9-metre telescope.

About Mars: -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mag: -2.61

Elevation: +48°

Distance Terre: 0.416 UA ( 211 469 M Km)

Diamètre Apparent: 22.49"

Interpretation of the Picture: The clear areas are basalt plains, covered with a thin layer of iron oxide charged dust, giving March its orange color. The dark areas are rocky plateaus formed of craters.

The polar ice caps, on the other hand, are made up of water ice and carbonic ice. They are partly sublime and shrink during Martian summers.

Mars can hide under dust storms, or show fine white-blue clouds of ice or ice water near the equatorial limbo.

More specifically on this image:

Elysium Planitia (clear Region at the bottom of the image) and Terra Cimmeria area (dark Region at the top)

Olympus Month: Bright spot on the periphery of the planet, bottom left, around 8:00

Erebus Montes: Dark spot on the periphery of the planet, bottom, around 6:30

Processing Data : ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



ASI 120MM

Color Space: Mono 16bits

Output Format: SER

SharpCap

Zwo FilterWheel

IR

Capture Area: 480 x 480

Gain: 29

Speed: 58 FPS

Time: 22h54 TU

Nb of Frames: 10 500 Frames

R

Capture Area: 480 x 480

Gain: 29

Speed: 58 FPS

Time: 23h23 TU

L

Capture Area: 480 x 480

Gain: 29

Speed: 58 FPS

Time: 00h12 TU

Nb of Frames: 10 492 Frames

Assignment of color layers:

IR -> R

L -> V

R -> B

Done in collaboration with Benoit Saintot, Jérôme Etivant and Jérôme Miroux

More Détails on my Blog: astrocoach60.blogspot.fr