JUN 27, 2005 - Your Solar System is a graphically stunning and astronomically accurate representation of how the Sun and the naked eye planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) move across the heavens as seen from Earth, from January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2015. This user-friendly display allows you to set the date and see a snapshot of the sky; or let it run for an animated display. (If you have a fairly current browser, you can see the animated version at the top of this page.) Let the display run, and you can get a feel for the way the planets as seen from our terrestrial perspective go through their cycles of retrograde and direct motion. (There's a top-down view that combines with the apparent view, which might help clarify the situation.) There's a lot more to this website than a pretty (albeit instructive) picture: it's part of David Colarusso's physics and astronomy classes at Lexington High School in Lexington, MA. Lucky kids!
