1. Retrograde Motion So we all remember the lesson where we drew a graph about Mars with the squiggly line. Well here’s the explanation. Onwards

2. What does it actually mean. Retrograde comes from the Latin words retro (meaning backwards) and gradus (meaning step). Planet means wanderer in Greek. So we are looking at the wandering of the planets across the night sky (in a general strange direction). Onwards

3. What it really means. It means that because we have a different orbit speed from other planets, that we see the planets do a strange sort of loop across the sky. We call the reversal movement the retrograde motion. Direct motion is the normal forward motion. http://atropos.as.arizona.edu/aiz/teaching/nats102/images/retrograde_copernican.gif Onwards

4. Sites for Moving Diagrams http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/retr ograde/retrograde.htmlhttp://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/retr ograde/retrograde.html http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/projects/data/Re trograde/http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/projects/data/Re trograde/ http://www.lasalle.edu/~smithsc/Astronom y/retrograd.htmlhttp://www.lasalle.edu/~smithsc/Astronom y/retrograd.html Onwards

5. Random Interesting Fact if you can be bothered to read it. Look anywhere on the net and you can find the retrograde motion of Mars. But here, pictured left, is the retrograde motion of Venus (our very own sister Planet). And yes if you have read the Da Vinci code you will have read how the motion of Venus makes a pentacle, and here’s the proof. It makes this shape over a period of 8 years if you can be bothered to monitor it. If you still can’t believe me you can watch it happening at: http://www.jgiesen.de/geocentric/index.html