Contains:  Solar system body or event
The 4 corners of Mars 2020, Niall MacNeill

The 4 corners of Mars 2020

Acquisition type: Lucky imaging
The 4 corners of Mars 2020, Niall MacNeill

The 4 corners of Mars 2020

Acquisition type: Lucky imaging

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Description

Over the past month or so as we have been getting much closer to Mars, I had some good seeing for these 4 captures which encompass almost the full 360 degrees of the planet and these views are almost 90 degrees apart.

The respective captures were made on the following dates & times (UT) and all are north up. The varying position of the south polar cap (SPC) reflects its asymmetry.

Top Left: 2020-08-28-1738.0

Top Right: 2020-09-05-1711.5

Bottom Right: 2020-09-15-1703.9

Bottom Left: 2020-09-23-1607.6

From these I made a planetary map (version B), which is in fact a planetographic, Lambert cylindrical equal area projection. It shows the features projected as if onto a cylinder and then rolled out.

I also made South polar projections normal (version C) and stereographic (version E). The normal polar projection shows what the planet would look like if approached from the south where the stereographic projection shows more of the equatorial regions

The south polar projections beautifully shows the asymmetric orientation of the SPC remnant. Thus the polar cap "orbits" the true south pole.

The last two versions F & G show the respective normal and stereographic polar projections for the north pole. .Of course the north polar projection is limited because the planet's north pole is tilted away from the Earth, but shows the widespread blue-white water vapour clouds that are perennially present around the pole at this time.

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Revisions

  • Final
    The 4 corners of Mars 2020, Niall MacNeill
    Original
    The 4 corners of Mars 2020, Niall MacNeill
    B
    The 4 corners of Mars 2020, Niall MacNeill
    C
    The 4 corners of Mars 2020, Niall MacNeill
    E
    The 4 corners of Mars 2020, Niall MacNeill
    F
    The 4 corners of Mars 2020, Niall MacNeill
    G

B

Description: Planetary map made from the 4 views of Mars. A planetographic, Lambert cylindrical equal area projection

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C

Description: South Polar Projection

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E

Description: Stereographic South polar projection

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F

Description: North polar projection

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G

Description: North stereographic polar projection

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Histogram

The 4 corners of Mars 2020, Niall MacNeill