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	15^th September 2016
	6^th September 2016
	22^nd August 2016
	16^th August 2016
	13^th August
	2^nd August 2016
	By now Mars has shrunk very noticeably…being only 2/3 the diameter it was at opposition. (when it was closest, brightest & largest appearance) In this image you can also see that Mars is becoming much more gibbous, (ie, the phase of Mars shows a much less than full disk, similar to the Moon when it is between First Quarter – the Half Moon - & when it is a Full Moon) This is also the time of year when Mars exhibits dust storms: the “dirty” border on the clouds on the lower left side of this image is a dust storm as opposed to the clouds themselves.
	16^th July 2016
	14^th July 2016
	Mars shrinking & taking on a more gibbous appearance: in this image we see a swirrling “gap” in the North Polar clouds made up of dust & ice crystals…
	2^nd July 2016
	2^nd June 2016
	Much closer to opposition in this image, Mars is displaying a much fuller disk.Syrtis Major, the dark Martian feature reminiscent of India in shape is prominent at the near-centre of the view.
	31^st May 2016
	17^th & 18^th May 2016
	5^th May 2016
	The image below was rather pleasing for us to achieve: it is an image of Mars showing its’ 2 tiny moons, Phobos & Deimos. These moons are 14 & 15.1 magnitudes respectively in brightness (way below human vision detection) & are very hard to pick up in images at any time. In this instance we increased the gain, effectively over-exposing the planet Mars itself: what surprised us at the time was the fact that we could still recover much of the surface detail (the darker areas on the disk) despite the highly over-exposed camera settings. This is real detail, albeit somewhat blurred due to the very high exposure, & the 2 tiny moons were present in the same capture data, themselves brought out in processing by raising the levels in the background sky. The reason the text states “No compositing” is because you wll most often find amateur images of Mars & these moons - & even these are rare anyway tbh - where Mars shows its’ details as in a normal image, but the moons are captured in a completely different capture & settings…but in this case all that you can see was brought out in processing from a single capture – a rather rare feat! J
	4^th May 2016
	25^th April 2016
	2 images (above & below) taken on consecutive nights where some of the features are seen in both images: the “club-like” feature seen in both these images is known as Sinus Meridiani.
	24^th April 2016
	Here, in this image taken in poor seeing conditions, we see swirling clouds covering the Hellas Basin region mentioned in the next image down. Other areas of Mars are also covered in clouds…
	5^th April 2016
	4^th April 2016
25^th Mar 2016
In the image below we can see the view where Syrtis Major is on show – this prominent dark landmark/feature looks a bit like India or Africa (except upside-down) & below it at the bottom of the image is the South Pole of Mars. This polar area as well as the region below Syrtis Major is covered with thick cloud & haze & incorporates the Hellas Basin – an absolutely enormous impact crater many miles deep on Mars…the largest/deepest crater in the entire Solar System! Due to its position & geographical nature the Hellas Basin is often swathed in cloud cover…
15 Mar 2016
The image below is the same one as in the next image below this one - except it is shown at a larger scale to help show the details obtained… Here Mars displays a “gibbous phase” – like our Moon, this planet goes through phases, although never becoming much less-full in appearance than the image here – unlike our Moon which can appear as a very slender crescent!.
Just over a month later than the image of Feb. 4^th Mars, had “grown” from about 7 arc-seconds in size to 10 arcseconds. (written as 10”) This “growing” in size is because Mars is getting nearer to Earth but it is of course still tiny to the unaided human eye…as a comparison the Full Moon appears as 30 arc-minutes (30’) or 1800” to our naked eyes – meaning about 180X the size of Mars in this image in comparison… The image below also displays how each of the individual channels in an RGB or colour image appear…it is these combined channels that create the actual colour image.
4^th Feb 2016
	Our Mars imaging outcome with the Red Planet still very small in size & a long way from opposition. (when it is nearest, biggest & brightest - & in the best position to image!) Not as good an outcome as the first session’s image this year below, but showing a different face, or topographical features, on the Martian globe. J
12^th Jan 2016
Our first Mars’ image for the 2016 apparition – Mars only comes around & presents itself favourably once every 2 years - & this is one of those occasions! J Even though this is very early & Mars is still tiny in appearance, we managed to pick up cloud cover on Olympus Mons & both the North & South Polar features. (see earlier Mars webpages for additional information on Mars features etc…)
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