"oriel36" wrote in message
...

Only with present imaging can this topic be dealt with properly as
rightly understood there are two types of retrogrades which
distinguish the motion of the inner planets from the outer planets.

As the inner planets of Venus and Mercury swerve around the Sun they
appear to move forward as they come from behind the Sun and then move
in an opposite direction again st the background stars when hurtling
in front of the Sun as they overtake our planet -

http://www.masil-astro-imaging.com/S...age%20flat.jpg

The retrogrades of the outer planets are different and the perspective
of a faster moving Earth overtaking these planets generates the
familiar forward-backward-forward motion -

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap011220.html

Of course,these easily understood perspectives do not rely on a
ridiculous empirical view that has no astronomical value whatsoever -
================================================== ==
Your ridiculous empirical thuggery has no astronomical value whatsoever.
You've never observed anything. **** OFF!

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Lord Androcles, Zeroth Earl of Medway.
When I get my O.B.E. I'll be an earlobe.