After the almost unbeatable opposition of August 2003, Mars followed this up with another very good opposition in Aries in early November 2005, attaining a diameter of over 20" for several weeks.  Here we catch him eight days before opposition, shining brightly in eastern Aries at magnitude -2.27 with a diameter of 20.17".  This picture was taken at a fairly dark location with a Nikon FE2 film camera from Essex County, Virginia.  In this apparition, Mars' closest approach to Earth was earlier than opposition, so you can see that today Mars is slightly dimmer but slightly larger than tomorrow.  Unannotated image.