![]() ![]() Stargazing Evening: Planning an Observing Session�the Astronomical Society of the Pacific provides a list of things to consider before you host a star partyĪstronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP)�the largest general astronomy society in the worldĪstronomy Magazine�a monthly magazine for amateur astronomers Motions of the Sun in the Sky and Sea Surface Temperatures I added all the complementary information about the image.The Distribution of Stars in the Night Sky To compose this text I visited the Nasa Science website. ![]() The full image covers an area of 4✢6′ x 2✥6′ at a resolution of 2.59″/pixel. The luminance filter was used to get all the faint details of the molecular clouds that can be seen in the background. Due to high clouds I discarted allk the blue band images and had to create a synthetic blue from the other channels. The image was captured when the Moon had set, from 20:34 UTC Dec.26 until 01:26 UTC Dec.27, with a monochrome camera and broadband LRGB filters. That’s why I left my home in Vilassar de Mar (Barcelona) to live my dream, together with my wife, here in Prades. The high altitude of my home, at 975 above sea level, gives this site the perfect astronomy conditions to capture images of the deep sky objects. Seeing conditions are quite good, averaging from 0.8″ to 1.5″. Located 2h south from Barcelona it has a quite dark sky being a Bortle 4. I captured the image from my new backyard observatory in Prades (Tarragona, Catalonia – Spain). The yellow glow of Mars covered the full field of view giving a warm appearance to the image. Due to the super bright Mars, with an apparent magnitude -1.41, it was quite difficult to capture the faint molecular clouds present in the background of the image. The image was captured in one single night, the 26th of December, with a total exposure of 3h 30′. ![]() This apparent erratic movement is called “retrograde motion.” The illusion also happens with Jupiter and the other planets that orbit farther from the sun. Then, as we move farther along our curved orbit and see the planet from a different angle, the illusion will disappear and we will once again see Mars move in a straight line. While we’re passing by the red planet this year, it will look to us as though Mars is moving up and down. It’s an illusion, caused by the ways that Earth and Mars orbit the sun.Ībout every 26 months, Earth comes up from behind and overtakes Mars. ![]() Did the planet really stop, back up, change its mind, and then continue to move forward? Did it have some weird, mystical meaning? Today we know what’s going on. This strange behavior was very puzzling to early skywatchers. Every two years or so, there are a couple of months when Mars’ position from night to night seems to change direction and move east to west. That is, Mars appears to move from west to east from one night to the next. If you were to look up in the eastern sky at the same time each night and note where Mars appears to be compared to the constellations of stars, you would find the planet a little farther east with each viewing. The image covers an area of more than 10 full Moons in diagonal (5✡9′). This region is full of molecular clouds that can be distinguished in this telescopic wide field image captured the night of the 26th to the 27th of December 2022. These weeks it has been crossing the Taurus constellation, showing the so-called retrograde motion, an apparent erratic movement that can be seen about every 26 months. Mars entered its retrograde motion last 30th of October 2022 and will end it on the 12th of January. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |