We ought to give some props to the outstanding amateurs who have been making all but incredible images of the Martian surface throughout this opposition, and for many years in the past.

One who really stands out for me is Tan Wei Leong in Singapore:

but there are many others.

I was out with my telescope the at the moment of closest approach, and the best view I had by eye was pleasing... just wish I'd get the photo-taking part down better *maybe one day!*)

The spectacle of the whole sky in my extremely light-polluted location was the real show, though. Mars, of course, was a startling flame burning in the South-Southwest, unmistakable and unnerving for its brightness. It almost seemed that a ruddy-tan disk could be discerned with the naked eye -- though of course no such thing is possible. The Pleiades and Hyades fought for attention opposite Mars in the East-Northeast, higher and grander in their compositional beauty, but dimmer by far than the hotly glowing planet in the Southwest. The Belt of Orion was just beginning to show over my treeline.

It was all the more enjoyable because morning clouds and fog which have bedeviled us here cleared for the show. Otherwise I would have been very sad indeed.

While I have not seen anything quite so detailed as some of the surface images of Mars acquired by others, the "baroque-ness" of the Solis Lacus region in many of the images is startling. I know, it's all an "illusion", but nothing quite like this appearance has been described in the past (that I know of). It is intriguing.

The striking appearance of the volcanoes, particularly Olympus Mons, in the amateur images is also of more than a little interest.

Observation of Mars is a constant delight.

Cheers, BRFelix