Mars - retrograde motion demo low-resolution mpg

I have dumped a low-quality mpg using Cartes de Ciel that illustrates
the retrograde motion of Mars between May 2003 and January 2004.
Although it is far below the quality available on your personal
desktop planetarium programs, it may be of use in responding to
non-astro general public questions about the retrograde motion of
Mars.

http://members.csolutions.net/fisher...sret_30deg.mpg
3.8Megs

Because of the file-size, I request that you right-click on the link
and save the file to your desktop, instead of playing the MPG directly
across my ISP, and clogging the connection.

The video begins in early May 2003 with Mars in normal motion in
Capricorn and moving towards Aries. The video continues through the
beginning of retrograde motion in Aries during mid-July, follows Mars'
retrograde motion back towards Capricorn through the autumn, tracks
Mars' resumption of normal motion in late autumn-early winter, and
ends in the first week in January 2004 with Mars leaving Aries and
entering Pisces. The horizon line that sweeps downward in May and
upward in the winter is my local obs horizon at 40 degrees north.

The field of view in the video is 30 degrees. The point of view is
tracking Mars, which remains at the center of the frame. The days
between frames is 4, which is too large to illustrate the several
close passes that the Moon will make by Mars in the coming months.

Again, this is low-quality res stuff, but may be a useful reference in
talking about retrograde motion with your non-astronomy friends and
acquaintances.

Regards - Kurt

(PrisNo6) wrote in message . com...

Replaced with a more reasonable sized and better resolution gif file:

http://members.csolutions.net/fisher...30deg_2003.gif

Also see Sam Wormley's "Space Weather" retrograde demo posted earlier
this month, e.g. -

http://spaceweather.com/swpod2003/31...retrograde.gif

- Kurt