The Two M's?

[ThePeaLauncher]

Hi and seasons greetings to all.

Just been looking through everyones wonderful planetary photographs and they are all amazing.

One thing has struck me though after going through the last 30 pages on this section of the forum there are no photograps of the two m's Mercury and Mars.

I am new to astronomy so i am sure there is a very good reason for the lack of pictures:icon_scratch:

Out of all the planets they are the two that interest me the most

[johnh]

Hello TPL welcome to the Lounge, Mercury is always very close to the Sun and so has to be imaged in daylight which is notoriously difficult plus it is very small <10" and results are usually poor. Mars has a 2 year cylce of reappearances, this time it is round the back of the Sun conjunction 4th Feb and will be imagable beginning of 2012. Planets don't always play ball sometimes there are no planets around in a season other times there are a few to choose from.

The BAA handbook costs about £9 and contains all the planet rising setting times so you can clearly see whats on show, now Jupiter is leaving and Saturn is arising and Venus is a morning object.

BAA Handbook

Regards, John.