All Eyes On Mars

On 13 October 2020, Mars had a favourable, near-perihelic opposition, thanks to a distance of only 62 million km. Mars was as bright as magnitude -2.6, ahining brighter than Jupiter for a month.

From the photographer: “For Mars opposition, Uğur İkizler and I travelled to Kendir meadows, a dark sky site on the south face of Uludag National Park at 1350-m elevation, 60 km southeast of Bursa. This is a 400-meter-wide pasture surrounded with pine forest. There is little light pollution, oozing from Keles 15 km due southwest and a few other nearby villages due south.

Ugur is a telescope maker and the largest telescope he built, a 0.5-meter motorised goto newtonian “Castor” was with us. I shot this all-sky panorama as an opposition souvenir, while Uğur trained the big scope on Mars and enjoyed the view.

Mars is at its highest due south at local midnight, shining like a camp fire, or a pumpkin lantern. Noticeable around Mars is oval glow of Gegenschein, with Zodiacal Band extending along the ecliptic to the either side of it. And the sky is in its typical autumn setting, with the Milky Way crossing high from east to west.”