This image was taken at the Florida Gulf Coast University with their new 16″ Ritchey-Chretien telescope during the close passage of Mars in early Sept. ’03. It shows the dark peninsula-like feature “Syrtis Major” jutting upward, along with the shrinking southern polar cap.

16″ Ritchey-Chretien Telescope. Fauerbach, Mon, and Wolfe collaborated in taking and processing this F/17 image composed of 690 stacked 25/100sec shots with a Phillips Toucam camera.