SkyEye

The upper chart shows the path of Mars across the background stars over the course of the year. Stars to magnitude +4.5 are shown with some fainter objects included to complete constellation patterns. The white circles represent the planet on the first day of the month and are scaled according to apparent magnitude. The faint paths before the first circle and after the last circle represent the planet's positions in December of last year and January of next. In general, the planet moves from right to left except when it's in retrograde and proceding in the opposite direction.

The lower chart shows how the appearance of Mars changes over the year. Below each image is listed the date, the apparent magnitude, the apparent diameter of the disk (in arc-seconds), the geocentric distance (in au) and the percentage of the disk which is illuminated. Note that Mars appears distinctly gibbous near the times of quadrature.

The red planet comes to opposition in January and is visible in the evening sky for the entire year with conjunction taking place early in 2026. It is occulted by the Moon four times — in January, February, June, and July — and passes through the northern part of the open cluster M44 (Beehive Cluster or Praesepe) in May. However, its passage through the brighter stars and interesting deep sky objects in Scorpius and Sagittarius takes place during evening twilight at the end of the year. Mars is in retrograde in the constellation of Cancer as the year opens, moving back toward Gemini before reversing course and gliding through the zodiac, ending 2025 in the constellation of the archer. Of the bright planets, it encounters only Mercury in October and November.

All times and dates are in UT with the time given to the nearest hour unless otherwise indicated. Positions are geocentric apparent places and referred to the true equator and equinox of date.