Posted on 06/02/2016 4:03:22 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Explanation: Seen any planets lately? All three planets now shining brightly in the night sky are imaged in these panels, captured last week with the 1 meter telescope at Pic du Midi Observatory in the French Pyrenees. Near opposition and closest to Earth on May 30, Mars is presently offering the best ground-based photo-ops in the last decade. The sharp image finds clouds above the Red Planet's north pole (top) and towering volcanos near its right limb. Saturn reaches its own opposition tonight, its bright rings and gaps clearly revealed in the telescopic portrait. Jupiter is currently highest during the evening twilight and shows off its planet-girdling cloud bands and Great Red Spot in this scene. Of course close-up images of the ruling gas giant will follow the July arrival of the solar-powered Juno spacecraft and JunoCam.
(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...
[Credit and Copyright: JL. Dauvergne, E. Kraaikamp, F. Colas / S2P / IMCCE / OMP]
Not to scale............8^)
;’) And, you got in before that idea was expressed by some cranky-pants nitpicker, so, Kudos! While posting it, it got me wondering, just how dang tiny would Mars look, I think it’s about half the diameter of the Earth, and the Earth is 1/318th the mass of Jupiter (and Jupiter is something better than 1/4th the density of Earth or Mars)...
“I wanted to paint Jupiter first, and wound up driving for months, going from store to store, and buying up every can they had...” ;’)
Mars would be a spec on the face of Jupiter....................
I remember that being an amazing telescope for planets. This is the first I’ve seen from it in a long time.
Why are planets round, even the gas ones?
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