Mars is the only evening planet now, moving rapidly but almost unnoticed across the seemingly empty parts of southeastern Leo.  Leo is a striking pattern for the unaided eye, and of course it offers numerous galaxies and double stars for telescope users, but for scanning with binoculars, it is less insteresting than many other areas of the sky.  Except for this very part of Leo through which Mars is now moving!  The chain of stars from ε down to υ offers neat little star chains, groupings, and binocular double stars ~ and now Mars adds briefly to this scene.  Mars is quite dim at the moment, shining only at magnitude +1.57, making it almost exactly the same brightness as Castor.  Unannotated image.