Red Planet Overhead

I got out this morning... around 6am or so... and the red planet, Mars was high overhead. I'd left the scope out... just in case... so it was setup and ready to go. Skies were ok... probably about a 6 out of 10. This allowed me to view sharply to about 175x. I pushed a bit past this... to about 225x, but... views were a bit mushy by this point. Dropping back to 175x gave me a fairly consistent view of the planet's surface. Details were readily apparent... though the south polar ice cap seems to have melted away :(
Mars is currently just over 14" in apparent diameter... on its way to around 20" later this fall. Views will only get better in the coming weeks and months... so be sure to get out there every opportunity you get!