Mars went through a very good (i.e., close) opposition in June of this year, and after completing his retrograde motion, has been more with ever greater rapidity eastward against the stars.  Here we see him on the east side of the Teapot of Sagittarius, shining at a still respectable magnitude -0.25, brighter than all stars save Sirius and Canopus, and almost exactly the same brightness as α Centauri.  Unannotated image.