[barefoot_hiker]

Have yet to see any detail on Mars. Using an 8” SCT and 4” f9 ED refractor. All I see is a pretty orange/red disc. Seeing has ranged from poor to good. I probably need to stay up late to observe Mars when it’s higher in the sky. Been packing it in around 10PM since I get up at 5AM for work.

[SunkenCiv]

That's probably all you can get; the canali reported by Schiaparelli are still reported today, and in the same places, which is weird, because I don't think there's any sign of them from probes. He was able to make out the large impact features, but the term canali led Percival Lowell and a few others to believe that there were artificial water channels on Mars. One of the non-explanations for them was that anyone seeing a blurry orange dot would automatically just make up details like that, another nail in the coffin of the idea that "skeptics" are rational.

[plsvn]

Have yet to see any detail on Mars

Yeah, hard to get excited about this opposition, it's one of the worst possible distance-wise.

[SunkenCiv]

Oh, see, I’m not too bright... my original reference to lines was a joke about their superimposition of the zodiac lines on the image. :’) [blush]