Today Mars reaches opposition, and the sky is clear! Sun, Earth and Mars are in a line, bringing Mars and Earth to their closest points in orbit for this year. This means it is a good time for observation. I’ve had great difficulty trying to photograph Mars – the colour already seems to be wrong, and the photographs seems to capture less detail than can be seen visually through the eyepiece. Still here’s a couple, one from today, and one from a few days ago. The north polar ice cap, currently tilted towards us, is clearly visible, as well as some ice cloud towards the west and south. The prominent dark pointed surface feature of Syrtis Major is clearly visible, at least on the second photo.
