I had a butcher's at Mars this morning with the ST80 at 200x. I'll say one thing ... IT'S BIG! I tried the Celestron filter but to be honest, although the phase was sharp (despite an 0.4mm exit pupil), the surface was just a giant space peach. There was a hint of darker surface features and also a hint of a white albedo feature in the northern pole.



I think Reggie's picture says it all.

 

July 15:

The Director inspected the planet visually this morning, and could see the still-dark Olympus Mons near the evening terminator and several albedo anomalies from Claritas through Mare Tyrrhenum. The maximum feature intensity was about 4.5 on the 0-10 scale where 0 is the normal brilliance of the cap, 2 the average brightness of the deserts and 10 the black sky background. His impression was that the NPH was becoming better visible. Images just received from Barry Adcock (Australia) for July 14 show that Sinus Meridiani has finally reappeared, albeit weakly. The SPC remains affected by dust fallout, and has a complex pattern of bright and dark areas. With opposition in less than a fortnight it seems that the major markings will be visible again in time, though they will remain at least another month below their average intensity. Good observing! ~ op cit

https://britastro.org/node/10908