On Jan 7, 6:26*pm, oriel36 wrote:
Here is what the motions of Jupiter and Saturn look like over the
course of a year against the same stellar background -

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0112...loop_tezel.jpg

Here is what the same images look like as time lapse footage -

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0112/JuSa2000_tezel.gif



It takes 12 years for Jupiter( rather than the typo of 20 years) but
the relationship with the Earth's orbital motion and that of the
planet Saturn still remains the same and just as Copernicus originally
describes it -

"We find, then, in this arrangement the marvelous symmetry of the
universe, and a sure linking together in harmony of the motion and
size of the spheres, such as could be perceived in no other way. For
here one may understand, by attentive observation, why Jupiter appears
to have a larger progression and retrogression than Saturn, and
smaller than Mars, and again why Venus has larger ones than Mercury;
why such a doubling back appears more frequently in Saturn than in
Jupiter, and still more rarely in Mars and Venus than in Mercury; and
furthermore why Saturn, Jupiter and Mars are nearer to the Earth when
in opposition than in the region of their occultations by the Sun and
re-appearance . . . . All these phenomena proceed from the same cause,
which lies in the motion of the Earth." Copernicus

Isn't it brilliant to see his words and his reasoning transformed by
the power of modern imaging into something people can now easily
grasp ! -

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0112/JuSa2000_tezel.gif