Trevor,
Your method would probably work with polar projection
as well. The same way that you did those brilliant Jupiter
projections / anims.
I think your resolution would easily allow it.
Only problem is I suppose working out the true polar
axis from an image?

I'm not sure how easy it would be doing the same for
Mars. Does the projection program take this tilt into it's
calculations?
Here is a fantastic result from George T from Greece
as an example:
http://www.lunar-captures.com//mars2...0_Mars_Tar.jpg
Steve