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 Ophiuchus at the start of 2022. It is a morning sky object, slowly distancing itself from the Sun after last October's conjunction. It is a relatively dim magnitude +1.5 at the beginning of January but slowly brightens to −1.9 through the year as it approaches opposition in December. Mars makes its way across the zodiac (with a brief incursion into Cetus), arriving in Taurus in August where it spends the rest of the year. Mars passes close by Saturn in April, and Neptune and Jupiter in May. It is also occulted by the Moon three times, the last occultation taking place on the day of the red planet's opposition in December.
| 19 January | Ophiuchus → Sagittarius |
| 26 January | 0.5° north of NGC 6530, an open star cluster within M8, the Lagoon Nebula |
| 27 January | maximum declination south |
| 29 January | 2.4° north of the Moon |
| 05 February | 0.2° north of the globular cluster M22 |
| 16 February | planetary conjunction: 6.2° south of Venus |
| 24 February | equinox: autumn in the northern hemisphere and spring in the southern hemisphere |
| 05 March | Sagittarius → Capricornus |
| 06 March | planetary conjunction: 4.5° south of Venus |
| 30 March | 0.2° north of fourth-magnitude variable star ι Capricorni |
| 05 April | planetary conjunction: 0.3° south of Saturn |
| 11 April | Capricornus → Aquarius |
| 18 May | planetary conjunction: 0.5° south of Neptune |
| 19 May | Aquarius → Pisces |
| 24 May | 2.8° north of the Moon |
| 29 May | planetary conjunction: 0.6° north of Jupiter |
| 03 June | Pisces → Cetus |
| 09 June | Cetus → Pisces |
| 21 June | perihelion |
| 22 June | lunar occulation: 0.9° north of the Moon |
| 02 July | 0.2° south of fourth-magnitude star ο Piscium (Torcular) |
| 08 July | Pisces → Aries |
| 21 July | solstice: winter in the northern hemisphere and summer in the southern hemisphere |
| lunar occultation: 1.1° south of the Moon | |
| 02 August | planetary conjunction: 1.3° south of Uranus |
| 09 August | Aries → Taurus |
| 19 August | 2.7° south of the Moon |
| 27 August | west quadrature |
| 20 October | ascending node |
| 30 October | stationary in right ascension: direct → retrograde |
| 11 November | 2.5° south of the Moon |
| 01 December | minimum distance: 0.545 au from Earth |
| 06 December | maximum declination north |
| 08 December | lunar occultation: 0.5° south of the Moon |
| opposition: magnitude −1.9, apparent diameter 17.3 arc-seconds | |
| 26 December | equinox: spring in the northern hemisphere and autumn in the southern hemisphere |
