Mars!

Anthony Wesley captured this glorious telescope image of the planet Mars on March 6. He wrote on his Facebook page:

Some good seeing this morning for the first time in many weeks…. I nearly missed it as the forecast was for cloud and rain, but at 3 a.m. it was clear although I could see lightning off in the distance…

North polar cap at top left, Syrtis Major to the lower left, cloud over the Elysium volcanoes at upper right, still bright blue cloud in Hellas at bottom. A faint band of equatorial cloud is also visible.

When to see Mars in 2014

A few days earlier, he got this awesome shot of Mars’ two moons, Phobos and Deimos.

Of the image above, he wrote:

Third time lucky… got both Phobos and Deimos this time. Operating the GS3 camera in 12 bit mode gives me a little more headroom. Once again the diffraction from my 3 vane spider is prominent. 3 minutes @ 10fps, no filter (L channel). 16″ f/4 newtonian @ 6000mm focal length

Thank you, Anthony Wesley!

Mars has good years in our sky, and it has years in which you hardly notice it. 2014 is a good year! Look for Mars tonight. Here’s how.