Best wishes to all for the coming new year! Here is Mars in fair seeing on 12/31. Even under just fair skies, Mars reaches around 74 degrees altitude in the sky at culmination during this apparition. When a target is at higher altitude in the sky, we’re looking at it through less of our atmosphere, so some reasonable detail can be seen even in the absence of good seeing.
In this image, you can see the Elysium volcanic plateau (the bright dot to the upper left of center is the peak). On the right edge of the image is an orographic cloud over Olympus Mons.
Taken with the C14, ASI290m, and Astronomik filters.
