Astronomy – astrogrammar

The Valley of the Mean : Are We Judging Planets Against a Line They Rarely Occupy?

1. The Hook

Frequency distribution of Mars’ geocentric speed over 6,000 years (3000 BC – AD 3000). The blue dotted line indicates the “Mean Daily Motion.”

Before we exchange any words, I would like you to simply look at this blue dotted line. This visualization represents the daily speed of Mars over a span of 6,000 years, from 3000 BC to AD 3000, based on data from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

The blue line marks the “Mean Daily Motion of Mars”—approximately 0°31′. For millennia, we have trusted this value as the “Standard,” using it as the definitive yardstick to judge whether a planet is “Swift” or “Slow.”

However, the reality this graph reveals is a landscape quite different from our conventional wisdom. Look closely. In the immediate vicinity of the blue line we call the “Standard,” Mars does not linger nearly as often.
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Web app Sphere 10, Visualize Astrology, Understand the Sky

Sphere10 is a web application that visualizes the positions of planets and zodiac signs on the celestial sphere. Enjoy!

Controls

[_] Minimize controls
▶ Play
■ Stop
▶▶ Fast Forward
◀◀ Reverse Play

Rotation:Linked to mouse operation:

Horizontal: Adjusts the horizontal (left-right) rotation of the celestial sphere.
North/South: Adjusts the vertical tilt (up-down) of the celestial sphere.
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How Mercury Retrograde Works

Mercury retrograde animation in the heliocentric theory

It shows Mercury moving across the horoscope. When the red dot moves in the opposite direction, Mercury is said to be retrograde. In this animation, the yellow disc is the Sun. Mercury orbits the Sun, and the red dot shows its position seen from Earth.

Ptolemy’s question and the geocentric theory

The Moon and the Sun do not move retrograde. Why do the five other planets go direct and retrograde?
The conclusion Ptolemy reached was that the five planets move very complexly.

It is an animation of planets’ motion from the geocentric theory’s perspective. It shows the motion of the Moon, Mercury, Venus, and the Sun, with the Earth at the center.

Mercury’s motion as seen from Earth

A simulation of Mercury’s motion around the Sun at noon every day from October 2024 to December 2025 shows how we see from Earth. [by Stellarium]

Actual Venus is above the horizon, but she is below the ascendant in the software. Why?

[日本語]

The other day one of my acquaintances told me that she saw the morning Venus above the horizon, although a horoscope software indicated that Venus was still under the ascendant.
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