Circonstances: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 is the second volcanic region of the planet Mars, the first being the bulge of Tharsis
Formations evoking the «fossilized» surface of a sea covered with fragments of broken sea ice were identified in 2005 by the HRSC instrument of the Mars Express probe in the east of the region.


Terra Cimmeria is one of the oldest regions of Mars.
This region would have sheltered, in Noachien, a vast body of water of more than one million square kilometers, Lake Eridania, supposed to be at the origin of Ma'adim Vallis8. This lake would then have fragmented into a set of smaller lakes as it dried up.



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

ASI 120MC

Color Space: Mono 16bits

Output Format: SER

SharpCap

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

More Détails on my Blog: astrocoach60.blogspot.fr