Another great amateur image from Damien Peach

[iceman]

Some of the best I've seen.

http://elvis.rowan.edu/marswatch/images/marswatch.php?s=2005-10-16&e=2005-10-16

His is the first one at the top of the page.

[h0ughy]

wow

[davidpretorius]

ok, imagine, rocking up to snake valley, plopping out the gear, do your alignments, in goes the camera & whammo, that image comes up on screen.

it would be like tiger woods turning up to kids golf clinic or kelly slater at local surf beach or ken at a local tatooist covention!

But,........ given his equipment, there are guys here with the "magic" touch that could equal this.

Cmon ice, ask for a raise, take out a loan, sell the kids, invest in what damien has, you know we want you to!

[bird]

The main thing that DP has is... seeing. Mars is high in the sky for him and others in the northern hemisphere, above the magic 60 degree elevation. No matter what equipment we try I doubt that we can challenge him on Mars.

Jupiter, on the other hand, is definitely in our part of the sky, and might be another matter come April next year...

regards, Bird

[rumples riot]

Thats a great set of images, He has the seeing and he has the elevation.

Jupiter will be ours for at least the next season. In fact it will as I understand it be better than last year. We had high elevation this year and it will be higher again. Saturn will be slightly better than this year but the Northern hemisphere will have the better end of the deal. As for Mars, yeah we have to compete with elevation. Maybe next opposition. We had it last time and they did not. Must be our turn next time.

Paul

[bird]

You can figure it out more-or-less by knowing which month the opposition happens - winter oppositions for us are best and summer oppositions are worst. Both jupiter and saturn are heading closer to winter oppositions, so that's good.

The next mars opposition will still be close to summer, so that's bad. Also mars gets smaller again for next opposition, only reached 15" across. The next opposition after that will be back in winter so that's good but mars will still be small because of the way our orbits line up (we hit perihelion when mars is at aphelion).

regards, Bird

[rumples riot]

Yeah I knew that but explanation was beyond me at this stage of the night. Glad you did Anthony. Looks like we won't get a close Mars Opposition for many years to come. Maybe 18 years. Am I right?

Thank goodness for Jupiter and Saturn.