Watching Mercury today

On Thursday, January 24, 2019 at 11:40:11 PM UTC, palsing wrote:
On Wednesday, January 23, 2019 at 11:03:07 PM UTC-8, Gerald Kelleher wrote:
On Thursday, January 24, 2019 at 4:28:23 AM UTC, palsing wrote:
On Wednesday, January 23, 2019 at 11:23:06 AM UTC-8, Gerald Kelleher wrote:

Just discovered the Soho Lasco imaging and it is fascinating...

... and has been fascinating for the last 30 years!

You are just a little late to the party...

Even you now can say that previously astronomers believed that the direct/retrogrades of Venus and Mercury were gauged against the background stars, after all, this is the flawed animation you provided before -

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

Except... it is not flawed, it is exactly what you would see from the surface of the Earth if only the Sun was not so bright and often 'in the way'.

It happens that wider society is coming around to the actual common sense perspective where Venus and Mercury run back and forth in front and then behind the Sun where the Sun is central to that perspective and the Earth's orbital motion is accounted by the change in position of the background stars from left to right of the Sun.

https://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data...current_c3.gif

This is happening right now in the direction of the stationary Sun so having a satellite with the ability to both screen out the Sun's glare and celestial sphere rotation offers observers a picture of the inner solar system from the orbital motion of the planet.

You understand this is for those who can add to the resolution for the direct/retrogrades of the slower moving planets with a new understanding of the motion of the faster planets inclusive of our orbital motion.

If you want to believe Venus doesn't show a closed loop with the Sun at the centre then be my guest, this type of astronomy is not for everyone.