On Thursday, April 20, 2017 at 12:04:28 PM UTC+1, wrote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYYwNvjr7Lg

That clip shows an actual path of a planet wrt the stars and you do not recognize it because you do not understand what the retrogrades of the inner planets look like. You imagine that they look like the paths of the moons of Jupiter. You are wrong.


You are in good company with the rest of the contributors to SAA but in this case the observed motions of the inner planets gauged against the background stars work with their phases to generate a picture of a planet moving faster than the Earth is about as easy as it gets, perhaps not as easy as discerning outer planetary retrogrades/direct motions but enjoyable nonetheless.

I look forward to seeing a development of graphics and imaging to complement the satisfying resolution which splits the perspectives apart . Already there is a graphic which shows Mercury swing out to its widest point and then turning in front of the Sun with its creators having a full sense of its importance -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdFrE7hWj0A

Maybe you can get someone else to explain it to you but you have taken up too much of my time.