Oh my goodness, just beautiful views of 15.08" arcsec Mars tonight in
good seeing. Just excellent. And really cold, about -5F the entire
time, and my language was suffering from it, although nobody was
around to hear me. Painful to touch anything, even the wood 2x4 I use
to open and close the roof.

Mare Tyrrhenum and Mare Cimmerium were prominant, and Hesperia seemed
like a light diagonal slash cut between the mares. Syrtis Major and
Hellas were rotating into view by the minute it seemed. The dark arm
reaching up around Hellas was evident, and Hellas was bright on the
limb, the brightest thing within view after the NPC.

Elysium was a bright spot (oro clouds?) with an obvious dark
ever-present albedo "slash mark" next to it which seemed to be like a
line pointing towards Mare Tyrrhenum. Other dark but faint markings in
this area would tease me the entire time. The small dark mark close to
the northern end of Syrtis Major (called Thoth?) was periodically seen
and frequently hinted at.

The NPC was sharp and for some reason those dark lands edging out from
under it appeared unnaturally sharp as well. Perhaps it is an optical
contrast effect from this dark land being so close to the bright sharp
cap? There was real shape and texture to its dark borders and I could
see it clearly bulging out further from the NPC as I moved west of
Syrtis Major. (The Sun rises in E and sets in W on Mars, right?)

Besides those suspected oro clouds over Elysium, I again saw Mare
Cimmerium fading off into Southern hemisphere evening clouds. Mild
limb brightening seen in the Martian morning and evening, if I went
looking for it. The obvious clouds look to be an evening thing.