The Apparition of Mars 2020 (Niall MacNeill)

Contains: Solar system body or event

The Apparition of Mars 2020

Acquisition type: Lucky imaging

The Apparition of Mars 2020

Acquisition type: Lucky imaging

We enjoyed such a marvellous apparition of Mars in 2020. I put together this collage to show the changes in the planet over some 6months. In fact it covers the timeframe from June 18th, when the planet had a 10.5” diameter through opposition in the first week of October at ~ 22.5” to December 8th, when the diameter had shrunk back down to 13.4”. The middle two images are just each side of opposition but were pretty much at the maximum apparent diameter.

Most of the faces of Mars can be seen here and I was very lucky to have good conditions especially around opposition to resolve fine detail. There was significant dust storm activity in the lead up to opposition, especially towards the end of June, not seen here, but through opposition the planet was totally clear. Then after opposition, an interesting dust storm blew up and this can be seen in the third image from the right.

Note how the planet’s phase changed through the apparition. In the first image Mars was only 84% illuminated and the terminator was to the right in these north up images. That is about it’s minimum phase and occurs when the Mars-Earth-Sun angle is 90 degrees. At opposition the planet was of course, 100% illuminated. Then as the Earth swung past Mars in our orbit, the planet again showed a gibbous phase and the terminator switched to the other side of the planet. In the final image the planet was back down to 91% illuminated.

Note also the massive shrinkage of the South Polar Cap, through the Martian summer.

A most splendid apparition and a privilege to have witnessed and photographed it.

Please note: The following tables are updated every 24 hours.

Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	n/a
Started	n/a
Astrometry.net job	n/a
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

The Apparition of Mars 2020

The Apparition of Mars 2020

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Histogram

		...
You have no new notifications.

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

The Apparition of Mars 2020

The Apparition of Mars 2020

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Histogram

Notifications

AstroBin is in READ ONLY mode

Sorry :-(

Sorry :-(

Sorry :-(

Are you really sure?

Warning!

Warning!

Are you sure?

Report abuse

Slideshow settings

IOTD/TP stats (last [x] days)

Distribution of astrophotographers

Distribution of subject types

Distribution of data sources

Sorry

Sorry

Share

Upload new revision

Upload uncompressed source (XISF/FITS/PSD/TIFF)

Delete image and all its revisions?

Delete original image?

Delete all other versions?

Delete all revisions?

IOTD/TP stats

The following people like this image

The following people bookmarked this image

Warning

Flag malfunctioning thumbnails

Contains

Remove yourself as a collaborator

Plate-solving information