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 is found in Libra at the start of 2020. It is a morning sky object, slowly distancing itself from the Sun after last September's conjunction. It is a relatively dim magnitude +1.6 at the beginning of January but slowly brightens to −2.6 as it approaches opposition in October. Mars spends the first half of the year tracking across the sky before entering Pisces in July where, except for a brief few days in Cetus, it stays for the remainder of 2020. Mars is occulted by the Moon five times this year and is found close to both Jupiter and Saturn in the latter part of March.
| 07 January | Libra → Scorpius |
| 15 January | Scorpius → Ophiuchus |
| 20 January | 2.3° south of the Moon |
| 01 February | descending node |
| 11 February | Ophiuchus → Sagittarius |
| 18 February | 0.7° north of NGC 6530, an open star cluster within M8, the Lagoon Nebula |
| lunar occultation: 0.8° south of the Moon | |
| 21 February | maximum declination south |
| 28 February | 0.3° north of globular cluster M22 |
| 18 March | lunar occultation: 0.7° north of the Moon |
| 20 March | planetary conjunction: 0.7° south of Jupiter |
| 30 March | Sagittarius → Capricornus |
| 31 March | planetary conjunction: 0.9° south of Saturn |
| 08 April | equinox: autumn in the northern hemisphere and spring in the southern hemisphere |
| 16 April | 2.0° north of the Moon |
| 08 May | Capricornus → Aquarius |
| 15 May | 2.8° north of the Moon |
| 06 June | west quadrature |
| 13 June | 2.7° north of the Moon |
| planetary conjunction: 1.6° south of Neptune | |
| 24 June | Aquarius → Pisces |
| 08 July | Pisces → Cetus |
| 11 July | 2.0° north of the Moon |
| 16 July | Cetus → Pisces |
| 03 August | perihelion |
| 09 August | lunar occultation: 0.8° north of the Moon |
| 02 September | solstice: winter in the northern hemisphere and summer in the southern hemisphere |
| 06 September | lunar occultation: 0.03° south of the Moon |
| 09 September | stationary point: direct → retrograde |
| 03 October | lunar occultation: 0.7° north of the Moon |
| 06 October | minimum distance from Earth: 0.415 au |
| 13 October | opposition: magnitude −2.6, apparent diameter 22.2 arc-seconds |
| 29 October | 3.0° north of the Moon |
| 15 November | stationary point: retrograde → direct |
| 02 December | ascending node |
| 31 December | maximum declination north |
