After too much time buried in the daytime sky, the Mars 2018 apparition has finally begun!  Currently rising from the east in the early morning, I captured this set of data around 3:50am when the famous red planet was still just 27 degrees above the horizon.  The thick atmosphere at this low altitude didn't prevent the well-dialed C14 from getting some super data, however!

In what certainly amounts to the best Martian image I've ever done, we see some great surface detail.  Primarily, the frozen CO2 southern polar cap steals our attention, and for good reason -- it isn't a small feature!  The southern cap is estimated to boast 1.6 million cubic km of ice at a diameter of 350 km and thickness of 3 km.  Over the course of the current Marian apparition, I'll be monitoring this polar cap to see if I can estimate it's growth/shrinking as Mars cycles through its seasons.

Color balance on these planetary images is never easy, but I think I've come close here with a solid set of data and some minor curve tweaks.  I'm quite pleased with this early-season data and am really excited to capture more as Mars moves to opposition, at which point it will be 40% larger in our sky!