Credit: Eugene Alvin Villar
Animation of the night sky showing the apparent retrograde motion of the planet Mars in August and September of 2003 in the constellation Aquarius. The time period depicted spans from June 15, 2003 to November 18, 2003 in 2-day increments where each day is at 00:00 UTC. All stars brighter than 5.0 magnitude are shown and labelled. The animation period also encompasses the time that Mars was at its closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years.