Early-morning planetary imaging
We recently obtained a new telescope for observing the planets, and we had our first good conditions for planetary imaging this morning! This is the best image of Jupiter I’ve ever gotten, and I’m hopeful that it will be even better once it gets closer to Earth in a couple of Months. Saturn’s not looking too bad either, but it too will be getting closer over the summer. Mars however is quite distant; we have to wait until October to get good views of it. Mars is so far away from us right now that it appears to have a “phase” due to the sun hitting it at a substantially different angle than it’s hitting Earth.