Amazing what you can do with a webcam and some clever software. This is my first attempt at webcam imaging of planets, so look out for improved versions as time goes by! The dark bit sticking down in the region we call Syrtis Major. The polar ice cap is the bright white bit at the bottom. How's that for popular science writing? Compare a Hubble Space Telescope image (inverted with respect to this one), out in space and just a bit bigger than my machine: http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/1999/27/images/e/formats/large_web.jpg Telescope: 150mm f/8 refractor working at f/32. Initial capture of 1000 frames stacked in K3CCD Tools. Wavelet processing in Registax. Webcam: Toucam Pro variant.