Mars as observed underneath the jetstream

Seeing conditions (air turbulence influencing the visisbility of planetary details) are hughly dependend on the jetstream. Chances are that when the jetstream is directly above your location, that barely any surface detail is visible on moon or planets.

It can be however a very clear night. Also stars don’t have to ‘jump’ up en down and might not be seen twinkeling by the naked eye. An example is the RMS of guiding – this RMS can be < 2 arc sec and seemingly indcating good seeing, while actually the seeing is exteremely ‘fast’, and blurring out planetary detail.

Jetstream above the Benelux and the UK on December 18th, 1 CET am
Mars 18DEC22 C14 ASI290MM F11
RGB image same date & setup

Mars 11 December 2022

The middle image being the sharpest clearly shows regions like Solis Lacus, Tharsis with it’s volcanoes and also blue cloud formation to the left planetary edge. This feature was very clear in the blue filter image. Still need to lookup all the surface albedo formations!

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