This is an animated rectangular map of the celestial sphere, which will show us how things look from earth’s point of view (as seen by someone on earth). give the program your longitude and latitude. our time zone offset is 8 hours west of greenwich, which means that it is normally 8 hours earlier here than in greenwich, england. the program will take daylight savings time into account automatically if necessary.
a) what planets are favorably placed for viewing? give your reasons. be careful.
b) now animate the display. a lot of things are happening quickly, so first just ignore everything but the sun. describe the path over the course of a year and explain what you are seeing.
c) now try to ignore everything but the sun and mercury. describe what you see over the course of at least one year and explain. you may have to play it a few times.
d) now concentrate only on the planet mars, watching it very closely for a few years to see the pattern. is mars moving retrograde today? if not, approximately when will it enter retrograde?