CHRIS ILLIDGE PHOTOS
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International Space Station 

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The Space Station Directly Overhead
Picture
The Space Station Approaching
The closest Solar System object is of course the International Space Station orbiting only 400km up. 

The Solar System 

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Every Planet of the Solar System
2018 has been a great year. To Celebrate, here are the planets of the solar system. 
​Photo Details on how I process planetary objects

Waxing Gibbous Moon 

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October 18, 2018
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October 18 and June 21
The Photo on the left is the full image of the waxing gibbous moon at 400000 km away. The photo on the right compares the moon at the same phase. You can see that the position of the craters and the visibility of them have changed. This is because the moon actually wobbles and rotates a bit. Moon Gallery
Photo Details on how I process planetary objects

The Full Moon 

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July 27, 2018 (404 000 Km)
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October 24, 2018 (378 800 Km)
Let's start off with the most familiar object in the night sky, the moon. The left is the July full moon in 2018, and the right is the October full Moon. Moon Gallery
Photo Details on how I process planetary objects

Saturn

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July 13, 2019
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July 13, 2019
​One of the most interesting planets in the solar system is Saturn with its icy rings. Even though this planet is 1.5 billion km away (10.1 AU), it's fairly bright and you can easily see it in the night sky. Even though the rings are very bright, they're are only an average of 10 meters thick. 
​​Photo Details on how I process planetary objects

Mars Opposition 2018

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September 16, 2018
During this year of 2018, Mars came the closest its been since 2003. Unluckily, a planet wide dust storm consumed the planet, and the views during July opposition didn't show much detail. Thankfully, the storm cleared to get good views before mars became too small to view clearly. 
​​​Photo Details on how I process planetary objects

Mars Over The Year

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These three photos are of mars over the course of the 2018 opposition and the dust storm. You can see how the dust storm engulfed the planet during the opposition in July, and slowly cleared up to show more detail towards September. You can also see the southern polar cap start decreasing as Mars' southern hemisphere enters summer. 
​​Photo Details on how I process planetary objects

Venus

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August 17, 2018
Picture
November 23, 2018
Venus is the brightest planet in the sky. The planet is covered in bright clouds that reflect light very well. It is also the only planet that goes through phases in the sky, just like the moon. In this photo, Venus is at 48.5% illuminated. Because Venus orbits closer to the sun than us, it makes imaging it very difficult since it is always very low to the horizon.
​​Photo Details on how I process planetary objects

Jupiter

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July 9, 2019
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Jupiter Rotation in 1.5 hours
​This is a photo of the biggest Planet in the solar system, Jupiter. You can see one of the moons, Io, in the photo.
​​Photo Details on how I process planetary objects

Mercury

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December 10, 2018
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Mercury in True Colour (Since Orange is from the atmosphere)
Mercury is the first Planet is the Solar System. Being so close to the sun, it's incredibly hard to take a photo of it, as it's quite small and always so close to the horizon.
​​​Photo Details on how I process planetary objects

Uranus

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November 13, 2018
​Uranus is the second furthest Planet from the sun. It is at a distance of roughly 3 billion kilometers away, this makes imaging it extremely hard. 
​​Photo Details on how I process planetary objects

The 4 Major Planets Aligned 

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August 30, 2018
During the late months of summer, the 4 brightest planets are all visible just before sunset. This is also possible since Mars is on opposition year and is very bright in the sky. 
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