The father-of-three captures spectacular images of Mars and the moon with a telescope in his back garden

When you look at the night sky from your garden, you might see a few stars if you’re lucky.

But father-of-three James Flanagan wanted a better view and pointed his ‘middle of the road’ telescope at outer space for a closer look.

Since then he has seen a lunar mountain range, the dusty red surface of March and swirling nebulae thousands of light years away, making spectacular photos of them all.

The amateur astronomer said: “The most distant I’ve observed is the Markarian chain, which is a cluster of galaxies about 55 million light-years away, so the light that formed this image came right out after the dinosaurs went extinct.”

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

Mr Flanagan, who was formerly a city councillor, also broke up the Orion and Dumbbell nebulae, huge clouds of dust and gas in space, the latter of which is 1,360 light-years away.

Within our Solar System, he has observed Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and our Moon in a lunar eclipse, all from his home in Tankerton, Whitstable.

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

His telescope is equipped with two cameras: one to see planets and another to look farther away at nebulae and galaxies.

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

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

“If you only have a pair of binoculars, you can see all four of Jupiter’s main moons, and if you have a good pair, you can even make out the rings of Saturn.

“And as you go through each month or season, there will be something new to see in the sky.

‘For example, on December 8 there will be a period in which Mars will appear to be very close to the Moon there are certain events that I will be watching out for.

On Thursday morning, the Red Planet will be in opposition, that is, it will be located in the opposite direction from the sun, in relation to the Earth.

It will appear bigger and brighter in the sky because it will be at its closest point to Earth, about 50 million miles (81 million km) away.

This will give UK stargazers the best view March are offered this decade, and they won’t even need a telescope.

Coincidentally, at 4.58am GMT on Thursday, Mars will disappear behind the full moon, an event known as an occultation, before reappearing at 5.59am GMT.

Because of the orbits of Earth and Mars, opposition occurs about every 26 months, but occultation and opposition happening together is 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 Flanagan isn’t the only one who’s been 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 $10 billion (£7.4 billion) super space telescope photographed a particular feature of the nebula called the Pillars of Creation: finger-shaped 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 shows that as well many stars that are very young at only about 100,000 years old.

The pillars were captured in both near-infrared light, which blocks the brightness of nearby stars to show swirling dust, and mid-infrared light, which shows newly formed stars in orange.

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