How low can you get

Saturn on early hours 10-06-2016. QHY 5-11 planetary camera- 127mm apo telescope and x2.5 barlow lens. Saturn was low in the south.

Mars on early hours 10-06-2016. QHY 5-11 planetary camera- 127mm apo telescope and x2.5 barlow lens. Mars was low in the south.

This year Saturn and Mars, as viewed from the United Kingdom, will not climb far above the horizon.  This is not good for planetary imagers located in the UK as images taken close to the horizon suffer more from the thermal movement of air, differential diffraction of light at different wavelengths and pollution. In addition the weather in East Anglia has been exceptionally poor and all of the above images were taken through cloud. 

Unfortunately for us Northern Hemisphere Astro-imagers, Saturn will continue to get lower in our night sky until 2018 when, resident in the constellation Sagittarius it will commence its northward journey culminating in its appearance in the constellation Gemini in 2033. Sadly, by then, I will be either very old or dead!

Earth is moving away for Mars as it speeds along its inner orbit and it will be 2018 before it comes to opposition again (closest point to Earth).  However early in 2017 Mars will still be visible, although much fainter, in our winter sky.  In January, Mars is involved in its closest planetary conjunction with Neptune for over seven centuries! At 0637 hours UT on January 1st Mars, at magnitude +0.9 and less than 6" across, passes just 1'.2 (1.2 arcminutes or 0º.02) South of Neptune, at mag. +7.9.  Lets hope for a clear night and I will try to catch the two planets in one image!

Jupiter late on 09-06-2016. QHY 5-11 planetary camera- 127mm apo telescope and x2.5 barlow lens. Jupiter was low in the west. The shadow of the innermost moon Io can be seen transitting the Jovian disc with moons Io and Europa just visible to the right of Jupiter. The Great Red Spot can just be seen on Jupiter's eastern limb and southern equatorial belt.

Credits: NakedEyePlanets . com