​I can’t believe how big Mars is getting now as compared with just one month ago and the detail on the surface is just amazing…Woohoo! :-) :-) :-)
 
I took this image with some light cloud in the sky and can’t wait until we finally get a clear night to capture even more detail on the surface.

The image was taken with a Meade LX200 10 inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and a ZWO 120 MC-S camera with 3x Barlow lens attached.

​An AVI movie file was captured with 1400 frames that was stacked in RegiStax6 and processed in PS CS4.

Like all the planets in our solar system, Earth and Mars orbit the sun. But Earth is closer to the sun, and therefore races along its orbit more quickly. Earth makes two trips around the sun in about the same amount of time that Mars takes to make one trip. So sometimes the two planets are on opposite sides of the sun, very far apart, and other times, Earth catches up with its neighbour and passes relatively close to it.
 
Please read more at about the opposition of Mars at NASA Science Mars Exploration Program website at: https://mars.nasa.gov/all-about-mars/night-sky/opposition/
https://mars.nasa.gov
​

The waxing gibbous Moon looked so pretty in the evening sky on the 29th August with its close conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn on the ecliptic in the eastern sky.
 
The Moon, Jupiter and Saturn are all fully within the constellation of Sagittarius (The Archer) and you can see one of the familiar asterism of stars to the top of the image with the bright stars Nunki & Ascella.
 
The image was taken with a Canon 70D camera and an 18-400mm lens @40mm; the exposure time was 4 seconds and ISO100.
 
I took another image at the same time with a shorter exposure of 1/60th second to capture some detail on the lunar surface and softly blended it into the image to closely show what was on view in the sky :-)

I managed to captured Jupiter and Saturn just before midnight on the 9th August, and then the planet Mars a little later when it cleared the two-story house roof next door.
​This was at about 2.30am on the 10th August 2020…I have lot of obstacles in my garden!
 
The sky conditions were not as good as the last time I captured Jupiter and Saturn on the 1st & 2nd of July, but I’m still very happy with the detail. 
 
In this montage, all the planets were taken with the same focal length and imaging setup, so they are all to scale in size, last time Mars was at opposition it was as large in size as the body of Saturn…quite remarkable!
Mars will be at opposition on the 14th October 2020.
 
I used Meade LX200 10 inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and a ZWO 120 MC-S camera with 3x Barlow lens attached. AVI movie file were captured then stacked in RegiStax6 and processed in PS CS4.

The waning gibbous Moon was a beautiful golden colour as it rose in the eastern sky just before midnight with the red planet Mars just above and only 3 degrees away from the planet.
 
I’ve also inserted an image of Mars in the photo to show what the planet looked like just a few hours later through my large telescope.
 
Below you will find the image of Mars where I have labelled some of the terrain on view, as the planet becomes closer to Earth in the coming months this detail will become a lot more detail.

The wide field image was taken at home with a Canon 70D camera and an 18-400mm Tamron lens set at 200mm with ISO100 and a 1/15th exposure.
 
The inserted image of Mars was taken with a Meade LX200 10 inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and a ZWO 120 MC-S camera with 3x Barlow lens attached. An avi movie file was captured with 1200 fames and stacked in RegiStax6 and processed in PS CS4.
 
Below I’ve also tried to do a 3D picture of Mars; if your able to slightly cross your eyes you will see the effect :-)

I was extremely lucky to have three clear evenings to capture the conjunction of the waxing gibbous Moon travelling through the constellation of Sagittarius to meet with the two gas giant planets Jupiter and Saturn. This event happened on the evenings of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of August 2020.
 
This event is quite rare as Jupiter and Saturn are only seen close together on the ecliptic every twenty years as they orbit about the Sun. To have all three celestial bodies in the same constellation, well that’s just awesome J
 
You’ll have another wonderful opportunity to see it all again on the evenings of the 24th, 25th & 26th of September with the waxing gibbous Moon.
 
All images were taken with a Canon 70D camera and an 18-400mm Tamron lens on a tripod in my garden just before 6pm.  I had a bit of trouble selecting exposure times because the Moon was so bright and also a light twilight sky.
 
1st Image taken 1st August 2020: ISO640, exposure time 3.2sec at F5.6.
2nd Image taken 2nd August 2020: ISO640, exposure time 2 sec at f6.3.
3rd Image taken 3rd August 2020: ISO400, exposure time 2sec at f7.

It’s also interesting to note from the photographs at how much the Moon moves through the sky over the three nights, the Moon orbits the earth and the earth is also in movement orbiting the Sun.
​The Moon rises 50 minutes later each night because of this movement.
 
I found an interesting answer to my question on how fast does the Moon move in its orbit around the Earth from Robert Frost an Instructor and Flight controller at NASA who writes a weekly Quora blog.

To read more blogs by Robert Frost go to:
https://www.quora.com/profile/Robert-Frost-1

~ The beautiful colours of the “Belt of Venus” ~
​
This is such a pretty sky phenomena and all you have to do is look to the eastern sky after the Sun has set in the west to see these beautiful blue and pink colours spread across the sky.
 
My home faces east, so when it’s nice and clear I always race outside in the hope of seeing these pretty blue and pink hues of our Earths shadow in the sky.
 
Sometimes it's just a wisp of colour and very faint and at other times it’s very vibrant like my image above, I’m always on the look out for it, why don’t you try and see it too and perhaps take a picture.
 
What’s so remarkable about this image is that you don’t even have to leave Earth to see our planets shadow in space…. isn’t that just so awesome!
 
Image was taken with a Canon 70D camera and an 18-400mm Tamron lens; focal length was set at 20mm and aperture at f3.5.  The ISO400 and the exposure time was 1/60th second, camera was on a tripod.
 
I took another image of the Full Moon embedded in the ‘Belt of Venus’ on the 6th June 2020 with lots of science information about this phenomenon, please go to that blog at:
http://www.mystardustobservatory.com/astro-blog/-full-moon-immersed-in-dusty-pink-colours-of-the-belt-of-venus
​

Wow that was just fantastic watching the live rocket launch coverage from Cape Canaveral in Florida, I took a lot of screen shots as it was progressing…just so awesome and we are now on the way to Mars...Woohoo!
https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/timeline/launch/
 
Mars 2020 Mission, Perseverance Rover Launch The Perseverance rover is now on its way to Mars. It launched on July 30, 2020, at 4:50 a.m. PDT (7:50 a.m. EDT). Perseverance launched on an Atlas V-541 rocket from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.
 
The launch sequence began here on the east coast of Australia (AEST) at 9.40pm 30th July 2020. Please find below my screen shot images that I took while it was happening live :-)

We are ready to go in just a few hours time, watch the launch at:
https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/timeline/launch/
 
If you have already ‘Sent your name to Mars’ for the Perseverance mission ‘Mars 2020” mission just go the link below, fill in your details and print a new ticket that has been stamped ready for boarding :-)
https://mars.nasa.gov/participate/send-your-name/mars2020/

This is another fun and educational project by our friends at NASA to make us feel that we are all part of these amazing missions of discovery…Woohoo NASA, thank you!
 
To find out more about the missions go to Mars Exploration Program at:
https://mars.nasa.gov

~ NASA's Mars 2020 Mission Perseverance ~
https://mars.nasa.gov/resources/25147/mission-overview-nasas-perseverance-mars-rover/

Comet Neowise was only discovered in March this year and has been putting on a spectacular show in the northern hemisphere.
 
We here in the southern hemisphere only had a brief chance for a few days to see the comet as it headed back out through the Solar System.
 
The only trouble was, the comet was very low in the western sky and could only be seen in twilight with moonlight from a nine-day-old Moon…so all in all, I’m amazed I even captured it near the cluster of stars (Mel 111) in Coma Berenices.
 
I’m so happy that people in the northern hemisphere were able to experience this wonderful comet, the last one we had here in Australia that put on an amazing show was Comet McNaught in 2007, which was just fantastic!!!
 
I wrote an Astroblog reminiscing it when Comet ISON was in our skies at:
http://www.mystardustobservatory.com/astro-blog/-comet-ison-in-2013-comet-mcnaught-in-2007
​
​

Gulf News – Dubai _ 20th July 2020 
​
Congratulations on the successful launch this morning of the Hope Probe, by the United Arab Emirates,
​(UAE) their first spacecraft to another planet!

UAE to Mars: Historic Hope Probe takes off
The UAE Hope Probe rocket launched as planned at 1.58am UAE time in perfect weather at the Japan launch site.
https://www.emiratesmarsmission.ae

​Gulf News – Dubai _ 19th July 2020 
The UAE's Hope Probe (Al Amal in Arabic) is the first Arab interplanetary mission.