Here is a summary of my 2020 Mars imaging season.
After a 16-year break from astrophotography, I am back in the game gain. Compared to the 2003 opposition, Mars has changed quite noticeably. There have been two global dust storms (2007, 2018) and more smaller storms that altered the planet’s albedo features. I tried to label some of the potential changes here (please click on the photo to see a higher resolution one).
I also produced my first Mars map from my deck in Morgantown WV. The regions around the North Pole is still missing (just like Earth, the Mar’s rotation axis is tilted). I will have to wait for another opposition to complete the map.
The weather on Mars had been mostly clear, with hardly any clouds as compared to 2003. This was great for map making though. I did catch the beginning of a dust storm, which went on to spread to almost half of the globe in just a few days. Well, those were the few days that Mars turned its back on me, so I did not get to see it.
Sometimes, it’s hard to imagine the orange colored blob in the telescope is actually another planet; smaller but not that much smaller than our own planet Earth, and it’s changing over time. Maybe one day, we will get to visit Mars so we can point a scope at Earth and see it as a blue colored blob.