Planet Mars in full glory   41850
previous panorama
next panorama
Orientation on / offOrientation on / off
Details / LabelsDetails / Labels Markers on / offMarkers on / off Overview on / offOverview on / off   
 Cycle through labels:   first previous stop
play
pause
next last
  zoom out
 

Labels

1 Theodorus Harbor Bergen-op-Zoom, 34-35 km
2 BASF Antwerp Harbor, 30 km
3 Doel nuclear power plant, 27 km
4 Antwerp Petroleum harbor, 33 km
5 Antwerp city, 40-43 km
6 Sint-Niklaas city, 32 km
7 Mars
8 Teapot
9 Saturn
10 ArcelorMittal Zelzate, 18-19 km
11 Ghent city, 32-35 km

Details

Location: Terneuzen Waterfront (66 m)      by: Mentor Depret
Area: Netherlands      Date: 2018 07 15 00:35 AM st
If you want to admire planet Mars in full glory, coming days are the time to do so because on July 27th, opposition will be reached. This means that Earth will be exactly inbetween the Sun and Mars. Such a situation happens every 2 years and 50 days. At opposition Mars is nearest, or almost nearest, to Earth and consequently looks biggest and brightest. Because the orbits of most planets are elliptical and are not exactly in the same plane around the sun, the distance differs from opposition to opposition and so the brightness.
Coming opposition will be the nearest since 2003 when the planet was at the closest position to Earth in 59,635 years. In 2003 the distance was 55.7 million km and on July 27th it will be 57.7 million km. To be correct, the shortest distance not always coincides with the day of opposition. This year closest approach is on July 31st.
Look around midnight or early in the morning in the SE to S to see very bright orange Mars.
To the right on the pano one can also recognize planet Saturn just above the Teapot stars. Please go to previous pano 23831 for additional explanation.

Canon Eos M6 with EF-M 18-150 mm, 8 pics RAW, 18 mm (28.8 mm KB), iso 400, f 5.6, 13 s, PTGuiPro, 14187x3659 209.1 MB TIFF, no crop, downsized 1800>1000>500 TIFF>sharpening> 2003x500 721 KB JPEG

Comments

In fact a very interesting constellation and a very helpful explanation again, Mentor - I will observe that from the "Schwarzwaldhöhen" ...

Best regards, Hans-Jörg
2018/07/16 17:26 , Hans-Jörg Bäuerle
Dear Mentor,
I like your "Terneuzen Waterfront - Projekt", because its the only pano-series on this site. Each time a similar view but all the time a completly different fascinating mood.
2018/07/16 22:14 , Benjamin Vogel
It should be added that the extremely southern position of Mars during the 'Great Opposition' this year is a severe handicap for telescope observations in our latitude. For me it will probably be the last one as it is improbable that I will still be alive when the next one occurs in 2035. KR Wilfried
2018/07/17 08:35 , Wilfried Malz
Thx for the comments gentlemen.
@ Hans-Jörg: I suppose that the sky is less light polluted there so you should be able to make some nice recordings? Little detail: the Teapot is called an asterism and part of the constellation Sagittarius which is officially recognized.
@ Benjamin: I can only be happy with a comment like this and try to continue to show the many aspects offered by this location.
@ Wilfried: correct but what is bad for telescopic observations is a bit of a boon for a pano limited to a height of 500 px and you never know for the next one...
2018/07/17 12:00 , Mentor Depret

Leave a comment


Mentor Depret

More panoramas

... in the vicinity  
... in the top 100