I got a picture of Mars in Capricornus about 3 weeks prior to its opposition on July 27, so here it is magnitude -2.29, still not as bright as it will get,but nevertheless much brighter than any star.  Note how far south of the ecliptic Mars is at this opposition.  Mars' track during its retrograde loop shows that we caught Mars just after beginning retrograde motion.  Unannotated image, Ecliptic annotated.