Quote Originally Posted by Hulud
retrograde motion does not mean that mars was REALLY reversing its path
http://www.lasalle.edu/~smithsc/Astr...retrograd.html
heres a good diagram
http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/projects/data/Retrograde/
the earth just moves faster around the sun than mars and it basically 'laps' mars to make it look as though it is going backwards

awesome man. good post. it totally makes sense too, and i can see how it'd look like it was going in the other direction.