The astro-photographer Jean-Luc Dauvergne has published what he calls the most detailed map of Mars from the ground. The photographs were taken at the Pic du Midi observatory, located in the French Pyrenees, during six nights in October and November using a one-meter telescope. The photographer’s team then assembled hundreds of photos to create this incredible map.

Dauvergne worked with astro-photographers Thierry Legault, François Colas from Paris Observatory and Guillaume Dovillaire to create this map. It took about 30 hours of processing time for Dauvergne to combine the data into a rotating sphere resulting in a 360° view of the red planet.

My Modern Met. With this goldsmith’s work, the astro-photographer obtained “this Grail which was the global map of the Red Planet”.