  Exploring the quantum behaviour of macroscopic objects provides an intriguing
avenue to study the foundations of physics and to develop a suite of
quantum-enhanced technologies. One prominent path of study is provided by
quantum optomechanics which utilizes the tools of quantum optics to control the
motion of macroscopic mechanical resonators. Despite excellent recent progress,
the preparation of mechanical quantum superposition states remains outstanding
due to weak coupling and thermal decoherence. Here we present a novel
optomechanical scheme that significantly relaxes these requirements allowing
the preparation of quantum superposition states of motion of a mechanical
resonator by exploiting the nonlinearity of multi-photon quantum measurements.
Our method is capable of generating non-classical mechanical states without the
need for strong single photon coupling, is resilient against optical loss, and
offers more favourable scaling against initial mechanical thermal occupation
than existing schemes. Moreover, our approach allows the generation of larger
superposition states by projecting the optical field onto NOON states. We
experimentally demonstrate this multi-photon-counting technique on a mechanical
thermal state in the classical limit and observe interference fringes in the
mechanical position distribution that show phase superresolution. This opens a
feasible route to explore and exploit quantum phenomena at a macroscopic scale.
