A father-of-three captures spectacular images of Mars and the Moon using a telescope in his back garden

When you look up at the night sky from your backyard, you might spot a few stars if you’re lucky.

But father-of-three James Flanagan wanted a better view and pointed his telescope “in the middle of the road” into space to get a closer look.

He has since seen a lunar mountain range, the dusty red surface of Mars, and swirling nebulae thousands of light-years away, taking spectacular pictures of it all.

The amateur astronomer said: “The most distant thing I have observed is the Markarian Range, which is a collection of galaxies about 55 million light-years away – so the light that formed this image is gone. right after the extinction of the dinosaurs.”

He added: “I saw the rings of Saturn, the ice caps of Mars and the mountain ranges on the moon, all from my back garden.”

Mr Flanagan, a former city councilor, also captured the Orion and Humbell nebulae – huge clouds of dust and gas in space – the second of which is 1,360 light years away.

Within our solar system, he observed Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and our moon during a lunar eclipse – all from his home in Tankerton, Whitstable.

The former politician’s love of stargazing began as a child after he received a telescope for his birthday, but his interest was reignited four years ago.

Its telescope is equipped with two cameras – one to observe the planets and another to look farther away at nebulae and galaxies.

Mr Flanagan insists anyone can get into astronomy, as many parts of space can be seen without expensive kit.

He said: “Astronomy is a hobby that can be enjoyed even without a telescope.

“If you have just a pair of binoculars, you’ll be able to see Jupiter’s four main moons, and if you have a good pair, you might even be able to make out Saturn’s rings.”

“And as each month or season passes, there will be something new to see in the sky.”

“For example, on December 8, there will be a period when Mars appears very close to the Moon, there are certain events that I will monitor.”

Thursday morning, the red planet will be in opposition, that is to say that it will be located in the opposite direction to the sun, with respect to the Earth.

It will appear larger and brighter in the sky because it will be at its closest point to Earth, about 81 million miles away.

It will give astronomers in the UK the best view of Mars available this decade, and they won’t even need a telescope.

Coincidentally, at 4:58 GMT on Thursday, Mars will disappear behind the full moon – an event known as an occultation – before reappearing at 5:59 GMT.

Due to the orbits of Earth and Mars, opposition occurs approximately every 26 months, but occultation and opposition occurring together are much rarer.

Mr Flanagan added: “Seeing things like this is so impressive, it always raises the question of what is our place in this universe?”

But Mr Flanagan isn’t the only one snapping photos of outer space this month, as NASA has shared a new image of the Eagle Nebula, taken by the James Webb Space Telescope .

The $10billion (£7.4billion) Super Space Telescope has photographed a peculiar feature of the nebula called the Pillars of Creation – finger-like tendrils of gas and dust located 6,500 light-years from Earth.

They are known to be a major source of star formation, so the image also shows many very young stars only a few 100,000 years old.

The pillars were broken into both near-infrared, which blocks the brightness of nearby stars to highlight swirling dust, and mid-infrared light, which displays newly formed stars in orange.

The two images were then overlaid to produce a haunting image that showcases the best of both views, including the bright edges of dust where young stars are beginning to form.