The winter of 1995 saw Mars come to one of its more distant oppositions, this time in Leo, the second of a string of four distant ones up until a
more favorable one in 2001.  Here we see Mars about two weeks past its opposition on February 11; on this date, it had faded to magnitude -0.98,
still brighter than any star except for Sirius.  Note how far north of the ecliptic Mars was on its track during this opposition.