I can sit and complain about clouds being so bad this year all I want, but the fact of the matter is 2014 was a great year and I'm blessed to spend it with my friends and family!
Spanning from January 4th to December 30th (Never give up!), all photos are mine, including the Earth and all taken within the calendar year of 2014.
While last year was the year of the comet with 4, this was the year of the asteroid for me with over 12. I say over 12 because as I learned to hunt these tiny and faint things amidst the stars I found some images of poor quality and sometimes iffy results.
Here's the high resolution version on imgur as google shrinks it.
As Mars only comes around every other year I pursued the red planet fairly aggressively this time around. I had a few nights that ended up solely on the cutting room floor and the rest are presented here. 19 nights worth of images.
My images do not match the timing of the real retrograde motion of Mars as my observations are spotty based upon weather and time. Retrograde motion is explained here, http://mars.nasa.gov/allaboutmars/nightsky/retrograde/.
My images start in the lower right back in December of 2013, when Mars' apparent size was a mere 6.7 arc seconds. Mars begins my image's 'normal motion' through to April 1st, 2014 and then begins retrograde until my image on May 13th. Again these are not the dates of the real retrograde but an aesthetic representation for the sake of a pleasing looking image. I left a bit of room at top in case I get any more chances this year but the past few weeks have been quite stormy and had no chances to get anything of worth.
Highlights include a published image on SpaceWeather.com on March 29 (http://www.spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=28&month=03&year=2014)
and a few animations....
I didn't get Phobos or Diemos this year.
I do plan to make a full globe animation from the above images if that's what you're wondering!
Thanks for sharing this great ride with me watching the red planet and all the changes in weather and detail.
