Mars at opposition 9th March 2014

The planet Mars photographed from our Backyard on the 9th March 2014

The planet Mars is now shining bright and pink  in the constellation Virgo.  Mars is due south at about midnight.  It will be at its closest point this year to Earth on the 14th of April, after which it's distance will start to increase again.  Mars gets close to Earth every two years, one month and eighteen days but because of the eccentricity of it's elliptical orbit, sometimes it is much closer than others.

I was pleased with this image because you can clearly see the polar ice-cap and a number of white carbon dioxide clouds in the rarefied atmosphere of the 'Red Planet'.