When a planet is “in retrograde” that means that if you were charting its position in the sky every night, for some time, it would appear to move east rather than west. The planet’s motion isn’t actually changing — it’s just an illusion of perspective because Earth is moving too.
When a planet is “in retrograde” that means that if you were charting its position in the sky every night, for some time, it would appear to move east rather than west. The planet’s motion isn’t actually changing — it’s just an illusion of perspective because Earth is moving too.