🔁 3 Planets Go Retrograde This July!⁠ ⁠ Heads up, skywatchers! In July 2025, Neptune, Saturn, and Mercury will all go retrograde — a celestial event where planets appear to move backward in the sky!⁠ ⁠ 🌀 What is retrograde motion?⁠ Normally, planets move from west to east across the sky (called prograde motion). But sometimes, due to the way Earth and other planets orbit the Sun, they appear to reverse direction for a while. This is called apparent retrograde motion — it’s just an optical illu

This is the retrograde motion of Mars. So why does Mars sometimes appear to move backward in the night sky? Retrograde motion is an optical illusion that happens when Earth, moving faster in its orbit, overtakes Mars. As we pass it, Mars appears to slow down, stop, and move westward temporarily — even though it's still moving forward in space. Because Mars orbits farther from the Sun than Earth does, it takes longer to complete one orbit. When Earth "laps" Mars about every 26 months, the alignme