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Best guess?
Hi Billi,
I'm not an expert and I might be off a little, but Mars is considerably closer than Saturn, so by shear distance Saturn will be dimmer in apparent magnitude. The absolute magnitude is a function of size, I think.
So since Mars is approaching its closest point to Earth and Saturn is still away's off, it will appear brighter even though it is smaller. If I remember right Saturn is also nearly double the distance from Earth that Jupiter is, so Jupiter being as big as Saturn will still be brighter. Jupiter is also approaching its closest point to Earth.
It's all about distance, size, and luminosity (reflectivity). I'm still working on the basics of it as well.
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