Father of three takes spectacular photos of Mars and the moon utilizing telescopes in his backyard

Wanting up on the evening sky out of your backyard, you may catch a glimpse of some stars for those who’re fortunate.

However father-of-three James Flanagan needed a greater view and aimed his ‘mid-range’ telescope at outer house for a better look.

He has since seen a lunar mountain vary, the dust-red floor of Mars and swirling nebulae 1000’s of sunshine years away, and captured spectacular photos of all of them.

The beginner astronomer mentioned: “The farthest I’ve noticed is the Markarian chain, which is a set of galaxies about 55 million light-years away – so the sunshine that fashioned that picture was left simply after the dinosaurs died out.”

He added: “I’ve seen the rings of Saturn, the ice caps of Mars and mountain ranges on the moon, all from my backyard.”

Mr Flanagan, who was a councillor, additionally snapped the Orion and Dumbbell nebulae – large clouds of mud and gasoline in house – the opposite of which is 1,360 light-years away.

Inside our photo voltaic system, he has noticed Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and our moon in a lunar eclipse – all from his residence in Tankerton, Whitstable.

The previous politician’s love of stargazing started as a toddler after receiving a telescope for his birthday, however his curiosity was rekindled 4 years in the past.

His telescope is provided with two cameras – one to have a look at planets and one to look additional away at nebulae and galaxies.

Mr Flanagan insists anybody can take up astronomy, as many components of house could be seen with out costly package.

He mentioned: ‘Astronomy is a pastime that may be loved even with out a telescope.

‘Should you simply have binoculars, you’ll see Jupiter’s 4 foremost moons, and if in case you have a great pair, you may even have the ability to make out Saturn’s rings.

And as you undergo every month or season, there will likely be one thing new to see within the sky.

“For instance, on the eighth of December there will likely be a interval when Mars will look like very near the Moon, there are particular occasions that I’ll look out for.”

On Thursday morning, the Crimson Planet will likely be at opposition – which means it is going to be situated in the wrong way from the Solar, relative to Earth.

It would seem bigger and brighter within the sky as a result of it is going to be closest to Earth – about 81 million km away.

This may give stargazers within the UK one of the best view of Mars on supply this decade, they usually will not even want a telescope.

Coincidentally, at 4:58 GMT on Thursday, Mars will disappear behind the complete moon – an occasion generally known as an occultation – earlier than reappearing at 5:59 GMT.

Because of the orbits of Earth and Mars, opposition happens roughly each 26 months, however occultation and opposition occurring collectively are a lot rarer.

Mr Flanagan added: “Seeing issues like that’s so spectacular, it all the time begs the query of what place do now we have on this universe?”

However Mr Flanagan is not the one one taking photos of outer house this month, as NASA has shared a brand new picture of the Eagle Nebula, taken by the James Webb Area Telescope.

The $10bn (£7.4bn) Tremendous Area Telescope photographed a particular characteristic of the nebula generally known as pillars of creation – finger-like tendrils of gasoline and mud which might be 6,500 light-years away from Earth.

They’re identified to be an essential supply of star formation, so the picture additionally reveals many stars which might be very younger at just a few 100,000 years outdated.

The pillars have been snapped in each near-infrared gentle, which blocks the brightness of close by stars to indicate off the swirling mud, and mid-infrared gentle, which reveals the newly fashioned stars in orange.

The 2 photos have been then superimposed to provide a ghostly picture that has one of the best of each views, together with the glowing edges of mud the place younger stars are starting to kind.