MSA Mars 2020 Opposition Image Competition

Around the middle of October 2020 the planet Mars will reach opposition. This is when Mars is at its closest to Earth. (For more on Martian oppositions, see this page)

As Mars and Earth come close together, Mars grows every bright as a steady red “star” in the night sky. This occurs roughly every two years. Like Full Moons, some Mars oppositions are closer and brighter than others. All however are spectacular events and provide ideal time to photograph or draw as well as launch spacecraft to explore the red planet. Mars can be a tricky planet to image properly, but also one of great beauty and detail.

For the 2020 opposition event, Mars Society Australian is running a competition to discover Australia’s best Mars images.

This is split into three sections:

Open: The best image of Mars.

Taken through a telescope. The winner will receive a full family membership of the MSA including shirts and other gear as well as having their image featured and credited in MSA  materials.

Nightscape:

The best image or drawing of Mars in the night sky. The winner will receive a membership of the MSA. Special attention will be paid to the artistic quality of the submission.

Under 18:

For our younger Mars fans. The best image or drawing of Mars by someone under the age of 18. A MSA membership for the winner and their family.

How to Enter:

Simply visit the entry page:

Entries can be submitted by the form on the page, or for larger files, simply e-mail as at and we’ll discuss details from there.

• To enter, you need to be a resident of Australia or New Zealand
• Have captured the data for the image or sketched it sometime in 2020.
• We’ll be especially valuing entries that include as much detail on how the image was captured to help others learn more about planetary photography.
• Entries close on the 15th November 2020

We'll also be featuring images as we receive them on our social media accounts as well as on this page.