Explainer · 0:38 · silent, with on-screen words
Mars against the stars of Leo from November 2026 to June 2027: it stops, drifts back west for weeks around its February 2027 opposition, and doubles in size, while Earth overtakes it.
Shows Mars in Leo every day at 04:00 UTC (midnight in Guyana) from 1 Nov 2026 to 30 Jun 2027, J2000 star chart, with Earth and Mars around the Sun.
From the lesson Mars 2027 from Guyana: a guide for imagers.
A silent 40-second explainer drawn from the Mars guide’s own data. It plays Mars’s path against the stars of Leo from November 2026 to June 2027, day by day at midnight in Guyana, beside a view of Earth and Mars around the Sun.
Mars moves east until it stands still on 10 Jan 2027, drifts back west for 81 days, passes opposition on 19 Feb 2027 and closest approach that evening around 20:10 GYT (101.4 million km, 13.8 arcseconds across), stops again on 1 Apr 2027 and carries on east. On 1 Nov 2026 it is 6.5 arcseconds across and 214.1 million km away; on 30 Jun 2027, 6.0 arcseconds and 233.4 million km.
The loop is a matter of viewpoint: Earth, on its smaller and faster orbit, overtakes Mars around opposition, and for those weeks the line of sight from Earth to Mars swings backwards across the stars. The star chart is J2000, east to the left as in the sky; Mars’s disc is drawn larger than life, in proportion to its real size.