November: Our planetary neighbourhood, from home

At the end of 2022, Mars was at opposition, an optimal time to photograph it and obtain details of its surface given its proximity. It is the planets whose orbits pass closest to the Earth (Mars and Venus) where the difference in size depending on their relative position in the orbit is critical, appearing up to 7 times larger in extreme cases. Others, such as the gas giants, will vary little in apparent size. We show an image of each planet obtained over the course of 2022, where their apparent sizes have been respected. By way of explanation, the graph shows a comparison of the scaled sizes of the eight planets ordered from left to right by their proximity to the Sun. 

Author: Daniel López / IAC (CosmoLab C14 and VISAC Telescopes - UC3)