In January 2016, Mars was in eastern Virgo on its way toward the constellation Ophiuchus, in which it would come to a stop and begin retrograding toward its May 2016 opposition in the claws of Scorpius.  For some reason, I did not get a picture of that opposition, so this is my only record of Mars' position in the first half of that apparition.  On this date, Mars is still only at magnitude 1.11 and exactly 6" in diameter.  For comparison, Spica shines at magnitude 0.98.