No, beyond amateur scopes visually. Olympus Mons has not been on the face recently and you would have to have clouds above it and see the clouds. Clouds are usually seen in light blue filters. All your observing is albedo features. Now on exceptional nights of very steady seeing and a big disc (something we don't have now and won't for a very long time), you may see more detail in the shades but no physical detail, as on the moon, that I have ever seen. It is Mars spring right now so some features are there and some are not.
The classic observers in the nineteenth century were using refractors in the 29 to 40 inch range and even then detail was very ambiguous at best. A few serious claims by very good observers who were quite honest were rumored but are not really accepted now as correct. It took the Martian space probes to start to fill in the blanks from orbit. Up till that time no one knew if there were craters or what? So yes all you see are shades and you have to interpret those shades based on location.
Hellas Basin is a great example. Visually, an oval that is a lighter shade than the area around it but what was it actually? It could easily be mistaken for a pole. Only after NASA was it identified as the largest impact basin in the solar system.
On Tuesday, December 31, 2024 at 04:54:02 PM EST, Jonathan Scheetz <jonathan@...> wrote:
I think I made a mistake reading people's observations of mars on Cloudy Nights.?
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There were two objects that people reported being able to see visually in 8" to 10" scopes: "Olympus Mons" and the "Tharsis Montes" 3 Volcano Grouping. Most of the time it seems they were just seeing clouds above those objects.
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My question for the group:?
Has anyone ever seen any detail on mars visually other than the ice cap and albedo regions.
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I don't expect I ever will but it would be interesting to know if it was really possible.
