Mighty Mars

The planet Mars, the bright object seen here at center and rising in the east, shone the brightest (magnitude -1.23) and appeared the largest than at any time since February, 2010. This image was photographed around 9:03 PM, Saturday, March 3, 2012, and was a 20 second exposure at f/6.3, 800 ISO and 18mm focal length. The location was Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The smudges at right are fast moving clouds that were moving east (from top to bottom in image). Air temperature at this time was 28 degrees F. Mars is situated in the constellation Leo, and the brighter star above and right of Mars is the 1.34 magnitude Regulus.