Mars continues to move rapidly through the zodiacal constellations as the summer progresses, however it will begin to slow somewhat during the autumn.  Here we see the red planet in central Gemini, moving between epsilon and delta, now shining at magnitude +1.26, which is only marginally fainter than Pollux.  Mars is now slightly above the ecliptic and will continue to gain ecliptic latitude as it moves eastward.  The next milestones for Mars will be its alignment with Castor and Pollux on September 25 and then its passage through the Beehive Cluster on October 11.  Unannotated image.