Mars is gearing up for its best apparition in tens of thousands of years, which will come in late August of this year.  Now he is still racing eastward through the zodiacal constellations; we catch him this morning about ready to pass north of the cool-as-could-be Terebellum asterism in eastern Sagittarius.  This morning's view is almost exactly two months since the previous picture of Mars on February 12.  Mars has brightened to magnitude +0.31 in that time.  Unannotated image.