![]() ![]() Take a photograph on every clear night through to the end of the year, load each into a layer-based editor like GIMP and align using the stars. You can reveal the loop by photographing Mars against background stars with a mid- to wide-angle lens on a camera. And this is the key point: it is Mars’s close proximity that makes its opposition and retrograde loop really impressive. The illusion is caused by the relative position and speed of Mars in its orbit compared to Earth: our faster orbit allows us to overtake Mars, and this creates the looped path in the sky.Īll the planets appear to perform retrograde loops, decreasing in apparent size with distance from Earth. So far during 2020, its apparent motion against the stars has been eastward, but this will slow to a stop on 10 September, when Mars reaches a ‘stationary point’.Īfter this, it tracks west and continues in this direction until another stationary point is reached on 16 November, when Mars resumes moving east. Mars presents a superb UK observing opportunity in 2020 as the planet reaches opposition at a decent altitude in mid-October.Mars will also be in the middle of a ‘ retrograde loop’ in the sky, and its apparent motion against the background stars will appear to reverse. ![]() Mars retrograde 2020: see the Red Planet in reverse ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |