<p>Celestia may do what you want.</p>

<p>Summary to "Planet by planet, how will their appearance and especially their behavior as seen from Mars differ from the way they behave in the night sky as seen from Earth?"</p>

<ul>
<li>Mercury and Venus are very similar.  I don't observe retrograde motion in these planets or Earth.</li>
<li>Earth: wildly different.  It seems much farther away and dimmer.</li>
<li>Mars: wildly different.  It seems much closer and brighter.</li>
<li>Jupiter and other outer planets: very similar.  These mostly creep across the field of distant stars near the ecliptic.  Periods are closer to a Martian year than a calendar year.  If you track (described below) an outer planet, you can observe its retrograde motion.  For instance Jupiter turns retrograde in March 2069 and does not turn prograde until October 2069.</li>
</ul>

<p>To see that for yourself...</p>

<hr>

<p>In Celestia 2.7, pick your viewpoint.  Let's pick the center of Mars, at latitude 0, longitude 0, altitude 0 km.</p>

<pre><code>(menu)Navigation | Go to Object...
Object Name:  Mars
Latitude:  0
Longitude:  0
Distance: 0
km
</code></pre>

<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/BGeV3.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/BGeV3.png" alt="setting our target on Mars"></a></p>

<p>Now sometimes the texture wrapped on Mars is visible and we don't want that getting in the way, so let's make Mars invisible.</p>

<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/aZmXu.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/aZmXu.png" alt="hiding Mars"></a></p>

<p>While we're here, let's also pick "Follow" so that Mars will not leave us behind when we speed up time.</p>

<p>Now we need to find the Sun.</p>

<pre><code>Celestial Browser | (tab)Solar System |
(item) Solar System Barycenter | 
(subitem) Sol | (context menu) Center
</code></pre>

<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/EYTzx.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/EYTzx.png" alt="center"></a></p>

<p>If we speed up time now, we will be at the center of Mars, always pointed in the same direction (relative to the distant stars), so every Martian year, the Sun will roll back through our field of view.  We need to track the Sun.  Click on the Sun in the starfield, which will highlight it with four red arrowheads.  Then type "T" (the capital letter "T"), which will set us to track Sol.</p>

<p>Now let some time pass.  Rather a lot of time.  Maybe raise the rate to between 1e+06 and 1e+08 -times faster so some of the outer planets will wander in among the inter planets.</p>

<pre><code>(menubar)Time | (button) 10x faster
</code></pre>

<p>(repeat as needed).</p>

<p>It can be helpful to have visible coordinate systems.  In my screenshots, the "Ecl" (ecliptic line) is shown, using the toggle on the (menubar)Guides.</p>

<p>You may notice that Mercury's orbit doesn't quite fit in the field of view (shown in the lower-right corner, together with out "Track Sol" and "Follow Mars" conditions).  You can narrow the field of view by typing comma, ",", and widen it by typing period, ".".  A FOV of 70-ish degrees seems to keep the inner planets in view at all times.</p>

<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/jedHp.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/jedHp.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>

<p>The easiest way to track an outer planet seems to be to wait until the one you want passes Sol, click on it to Select it (which takes focus away from the Celestial Browser, which does not happen if you use the Celestial Browser to Select the planet), then "T" to track it.  Retrograde motion should be during periods when the distance to the planet is near minimal.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-28T22:27:47.947Z
Thanks for your tutorial! I think this is a work in progress, if you can add a **tl;dr** at some point specifically addressing "...Planet by planet, how will their appearance and especially their behavior as seen from Mars differ from the way they behave in the night sky as seen from Earth?" that would be great!
uhoh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-28T22:44:53.170Z
@uhoh : Some comments added.  Not entirely sure what would be a compact characterization of "behaviour".
Eric Towers
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-28T22:53:04.813Z
Well wouldn't Mercury and Venus [remain a lot closer to the Sun](https://space.stackexchange.com/q/41005/12102)? (also see [1](https://space.stackexchange.com/q/42016/12102), [2](https://space.stackexchange.com/q/41005/12102)) Wouldn't their synodic periods and times between moving form "morning stars" to "evening stars" be substantially different ([3](https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/a/33197/7982), [4](https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/a/25002/7982), [5](https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/a/33805/7982))? Would we see a lot more "lunar" occultations of planets?
uhoh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-28T22:54:13.157Z
@uhoh : Seems likely.  I'm unlikely to measure these things...
Eric Towers
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-28T23:00:05.633Z
synodic period is gotten from algebra, maximum elongation from trigonometry; these don't need fancy programs and texture wrappers necessarily
uhoh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-28T23:11:42.893Z
in the mean time, you might be able to post an additional answer to [Is there an online planetarium where the observer is on another celestial body?](https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/q/35938/7982) oh, perhaps not; Celestia is not an "online program", rats.
uhoh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-30T08:06:32.970Z
I like that you included Earth and Mars.  You might like to add that you need to look down rather than up to see Mars and vice versa for Earth.
badjohn
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-28T22:21:18.120Z
2020-04-28T22:44:10.243Z
2020-04-28T22:44:10.243Z
Eric Towers
<p>This should be a relatively simple problem to solve - which is the Academician's way of saying "do it as a homework problem" :-) .</p>

<p>First thing: find some celestial mechanics calculator and determine when each outer and inner planet is visible in Mars' night sky.  That gives you timings.  </p>

<p>Next thing: compare the distance from each outer planet to Mars vs. Earth. Maybe start with closest and farthest approach as examples. That'll tell you both the angular extent of the planet as well as the relative brightness compared with Terran observations.  Don't forget to add a fudge factor for the atmosphere.</p>

<p>In fact, probably the most obvious difference will be that <em>stars</em> no longer twinkle. (yeah I'm ignoring during serious dust storms).  You could use a wicked large primary and have no need of adaptive optic corrections.  </p>

<p>BTW there are photos of Earth as seen by the Mars rovers (or maybe just the surveying satellites, I forget) so you can get an idea of the color/features available. </p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-06T02:32:18.417Z
After thinking about userLTK's [comment](https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/26166/how-will-planets-behave-in-the-night-sky-as-seen-by-mars-colonists?noredirect=1#comment45261_26166) a while I'm beginning to think the question is indeed too broad for this site. One way to fix would be to ask only about Earth's appearance from Mars, as it would contain all of the necessary science and math to address the other planets later. Since you've already posted an answer, I'd like to ask if you would be OK with me making that change?
uhoh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-07T11:21:33.370Z
@uhoh  sure, or you could just post a new question on that specific topic.
Carl Witthoft
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-04T14:36:51.390Z
2018-05-04T14:36:51.390Z
Carl Witthoft
<p>Certainly among the first colonists on Mars there will be a few people interested in Astronomy enough to enjoy the night sky.</p>

<p>For them, familliar Mars will be missing and there will be a new, unfamiliar planet instead.</p>

<p>Planet by planet, how will their appearance and especially <em>their behavior as seen from Mars</em> differ from the way they behave in the night sky as seen from Earth?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-04T06:55:40.010Z
Companion question in Space Exploration SE: [What will shooting stars look like on Mars?](https://space.stackexchange.com/q/27073/12102)
uhoh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-04T07:56:51.047Z
@Kozaky I've written over 1,000 SE questions and I've found that in some cases it's best not to over-constrain a question or spell out exactly the form of the answer ahead of time. You are welcome to post your comment as an answer, but if you just give this a day or two I think you'll find that someone will post an excellent and informative answer to the question in its current form. I think this will be a fun question to answer as-is.
uhoh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-04T08:09:48.473Z
@Kozaky but to address your comment more directly, yes, those would indeed be important parts of an answer.
uhoh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-04T17:19:03.970Z
Martian analemma is odd: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap030626.html So planets might move a bit different than as seen from earth as well.
Wayfaring Stranger
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-04T21:55:18.230Z
Ask Jean Meeus. ;) FWIW, there's a classic old sci-fi story titled _Transit of Earth_ by Clarke about observing such a transit from Mars on 11 May 1984.
PM 2Ring
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-05T03:49:06.327Z
@WayfaringStranger that's extremely interesting! I hope that link and it's image finds its way into an answer here!
uhoh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-05T07:43:10.097Z
@PM2Ring Thank you for that! it turns out there's a YouTube video with a recording of *Sir Clarke himself* reading Transit of Earth. It's quite a thrill hearing the master narrate the event. Thank you very much for your comment! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csxT8Y9MaSs Also see [When will the next transit of Earth be visible from Mars? Was the last one really on May 11, 1984?](https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/q/26177/7982)
uhoh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-05T08:34:11.720Z
No worries. By sheer coincidence I re-read _Transit of Earth_ only a few weeks back. I have a whole bunch of old scifi books and mags that were in storage at my parents' place for several decades that I "rediscovered" last year.
PM 2Ring
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-05T08:41:34.130Z
@WayfaringStranger I suppose the funny analemma is due to the Martian orbit being much more eccentric than ours. Its axial tilt is only a degree or so more than ours, so that shouldn't make a noticeable difference, but on a related note there's the solstices vs perihelion / aphelion issue to consider.
PM 2Ring
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-05T17:02:20.080Z
@barrycarter I try to ask questions for which the answer will be interesting to (at least some) other readers. Sitting in a dark room running Stellarium all by myself isn't fun. However, that's a great recommendation for someone interested in posting an answer!
uhoh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-05T18:52:18.047Z
Jupiter would be a little brighter, but probably not as bright as Earth.  Earth, I think, would be visibly blue and follow a pattern similarity to Venus, never moving very far from the sun, so it would be a morning or evening planet.   Venus, even more so and it would be visible quite briefly depending on sunsets of-course.   Almost no atmosphere and stars are visible even when the sun is out.   Ultimately I think this question is too probably too broad, each planet would need it's own description if you want details.
userLTK
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-06T02:33:41.637Z
@userLTK I've just left [this comment](https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/26166/how-will-planets-behave-in-the-night-sky-as-seen-by-mars-colonists?noredirect=1#comment45273_26172). I'll still answer myself if nobody else bites.
uhoh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-07T03:20:33.573Z
@barrycarter why not take advantage of our "heavenly symmetry" then? If you enjoy running Stellarium and it can view the planets from Mars, a few screen shots might be an excellent and accepted answer!
uhoh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-28T21:20:53.100Z
Is Celestia unable to do what you want?  I've just parked my viewpoint on 10 km over Lat 0, Long 0 on Mars, followed and centered the Sun and watched the inner planets mill around for a few hundred million seconds
Eric Towers
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-28T21:23:02.347Z
@EricTowers if you'd like to write up what you saw as it addresses "...Planet by planet, how will their appearance and especially their behavior as seen from Mars differ from the way they behave in the night sky as seen from Earth?" then that would be a good answer to this question and of great interest to future readers, thanks! (e.g. planet W's motion was similar to what we see on Earth except that it moves faster/slower, Earth goes retrograde every X years, planet Y is Z magnitudes brighter/dimmer, etc.)
uhoh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-29T01:31:30.080Z
Related to this question: [*Is there an online planetarium where the observer is on another celestial body?*](https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/35938/is-there-an-online-planetarium-where-the-observer-is-on-another-celestial-body)
Fred
<amateur-observing><mars><night-sky>
How will planets behave in the night sky as seen by Mars colonists?
uhoh
# How will planets behave in the night sky as seen by Mars colonists?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-05-04)

Certainly among the first colonists on Mars there will be a few people interested in Astronomy enough to enjoy the night sky.

For them, familliar Mars will be missing and there will be a new, unfamiliar planet instead.

Planet by planet, how will their appearance and especially *their behavior as seen from Mars* differ from the way they behave in the night sky as seen from Earth?

**Tags:** amateur-observing, mars, night-sky

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Companion question in Space Exploration SE: [What will shooting stars look like on Mars?](https://space.stackexchange.com/q/27073/12102)  
> **username_0**: @Kozaky I've written over 1,000 SE questions and I've found that in some cases it's best not to over-constrain a question or spell out exactly the form of the answer ahead of time. You are welcome to post your comment as an answer, but if you just give this a day or two I think you'll find that someone will post an excellent and informative answer to the question in its current form. I think this will be a fun question to answer as-is.  
> **username_0**: @Kozaky but to address your comment more directly, yes, those would indeed be important parts of an answer.  
> **username_1**: Martian analemma is odd: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap030626.html So planets might move a bit different than as seen from earth as well.  
> **username_2**: Ask Jean Meeus. ;) FWIW, there's a classic old sci-fi story titled _Transit of Earth_ by Clarke about observing such a transit from Mars on 11 May 1984.  
> **username_0**: @WayfaringStranger that's extremely interesting! I hope that link and it's image finds its way into an answer here!  
> **username_0**: @PM2Ring Thank you for that! it turns out there's a YouTube video with a recording of *Sir Clarke himself* reading Transit of Earth. It's quite a thrill hearing the master narrate the event. Thank you very much for your comment! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csxT8Y9MaSs Also see [When will the next transit of Earth be visible from Mars? Was the last one really on May 11, 1984?](https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/q/26177/7982)  
> **username_2**: No worries. By sheer coincidence I re-read _Transit of Earth_ only a few weeks back. I have a whole bunch of old scifi books and mags that were in storage at my parents' place for several decades that I "rediscovered" last year.  
> **username_2**: @WayfaringStranger I suppose the funny analemma is due to the Martian orbit being much more eccentric than ours. Its axial tilt is only a degree or so more than ours, so that shouldn't make a noticeable difference, but on a related note there's the solstices vs perihelion / aphelion issue to consider.  
> **username_0**: @barrycarter I try to ask questions for which the answer will be interesting to (at least some) other readers. Sitting in a dark room running Stellarium all by myself isn't fun. However, that's a great recommendation for someone interested in posting an answer!  
> **username_3**: Jupiter would be a little brighter, but probably not as bright as Earth.  Earth, I think, would be visibly blue and follow a pattern similarity to Venus, never moving very far from the sun, so it would be a morning or evening planet.   Venus, even more so and it would be visible quite briefly depending on sunsets of-course.   Almost no atmosphere and stars are visible even when the sun is out.   Ultimately I think this question is too probably too broad, each planet would need it's own description if you want details.  
> **username_0**: @username_3 I've just left [this comment](https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/26166/how-will-planets-behave-in-the-night-sky-as-seen-by-mars-colonists?noredirect=1#comment45273_26172). I'll still answer myself if nobody else bites.  
> **username_0**: @barrycarter why not take advantage of our "heavenly symmetry" then? If you enjoy running Stellarium and it can view the planets from Mars, a few screen shots might be an excellent and accepted answer!  
> **username_4**: Is Celestia unable to do what you want?  I've just parked my viewpoint on 10 km over Lat 0, Long 0 on Mars, followed and centered the Sun and watched the inner planets mill around for a few hundred million seconds  
> **username_0**: @EricTowers if you'd like to write up what you saw as it addresses "...Planet by planet, how will their appearance and especially their behavior as seen from Mars differ from the way they behave in the night sky as seen from Earth?" then that would be a good answer to this question and of great interest to future readers, thanks! (e.g. planet W's motion was similar to what we see on Earth except that it moves faster/slower, Earth goes retrograde every X years, planet Y is Z magnitudes brighter/dimmer, etc.)  
> **username_5**: Related to this question: [*Is there an online planetarium where the observer is on another celestial body?*](https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/35938/is-there-an-online-planetarium-where-the-observer-is-on-another-celestial-body)  

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_4 on 2020-04-28. Score: 3

Celestia may do what you want.
Summary to "Planet by planet, how will their appearance and especially their behavior as seen from Mars differ from the way they behave in the night sky as seen from Earth?"

Mercury and Venus are very similar.  I don't observe retrograde motion in these planets or Earth.
Earth: wildly different.  It seems much farther away and dimmer.
Mars: wildly different.  It seems much closer and brighter.
Jupiter and other outer planets: very similar.  These mostly creep across the field of distant stars near the ecliptic.  Periods are closer to a Martian year than a calendar year.  If you track (described below) an outer planet, you can observe its retrograde motion.  For instance Jupiter turns retrograde in March 2069 and does not turn prograde until October 2069.

To see that for yourself...

In Celestia 2.7, pick your viewpoint.  Let's pick the center of Mars, at latitude 0, longitude 0, altitude 0 km.
(menu)Navigation | Go to Object...
Object Name:  Mars
Latitude:  0
Longitude:  0
Distance: 0
km


Now sometimes the texture wrapped on Mars is visible and we don't want that getting in the way, so let's make Mars invisible.

While we're here, let's also pick "Follow" so that Mars will not leave us behind when we speed up time.
Now we need to find the Sun.
Celestial Browser | (tab)Solar System |
(item) Solar System Barycenter | 
(subitem) Sol | (context menu) Center


If we speed up time now, we will be at the center of Mars, always pointed in the same direction (relative to the distant stars), so every Martian year, the Sun will roll back through our field of view.  We need to track the Sun.  Click on the Sun in the starfield, which will highlight it with four red arrowheads.  Then type "T" (the capital letter "T"), which will set us to track Sol.
Now let some time pass.  Rather a lot of time.  Maybe raise the rate to between 1e+06 and 1e+08 -times faster so some of the outer planets will wander in among the inter planets.
(menubar)Time | (button) 10x faster

(repeat as needed).
It can be helpful to have visible coordinate systems.  In my screenshots, the "Ecl" (ecliptic line) is shown, using the toggle on the (menubar)Guides.
You may notice that Mercury's orbit doesn't quite fit in the field of view (shown in the lower-right corner, together with out "Track Sol" and "Follow Mars" conditions).  You can narrow the field of view by typing comma, ",", and widen it by typing period, ".".  A FOV of 70-ish degrees seems to keep the inner planets in view at all times.

The easiest way to track an outer planet seems to be to wait until the one you want passes Sol, click on it to Select it (which takes focus away from the Celestial Browser, which does not happen if you use the Celestial Browser to Select the planet), then "T" to track it.  Retrograde motion should be during periods when the distance to the planet is near minimal.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Thanks for your tutorial! I think this is a work in progress, if you can add a **tl;dr** at some point specifically addressing "...Planet by planet, how will their appearance and especially their behavior as seen from Mars differ from the way they behave in the night sky as seen from Earth?" that would be great!  
> **username_4**: @username_0 : Some comments added.  Not entirely sure what would be a compact characterization of "behaviour".  
> **username_0**: Well wouldn't Mercury and Venus [remain a lot closer to the Sun](https://space.stackexchange.com/q/41005/12102)? (also see [1](https://space.stackexchange.com/q/42016/12102), [2](https://space.stackexchange.com/q/41005/12102)) Wouldn't their synodic periods and times between moving form "morning stars" to "evening stars" be substantially different ([3](https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/a/33197/7982), [4](https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/a/25002/7982), [5](https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/a/33805/7982))? Would we see a lot more "lunar" occultations of planets?  
> **username_4**: @username_0 : Seems likely.  I'm unlikely to measure these things...  
> **username_0**: synodic period is gotten from algebra, maximum elongation from trigonometry; these don't need fancy programs and texture wrappers necessarily  
> **username_0**: in the mean time, you might be able to post an additional answer to [Is there an online planetarium where the observer is on another celestial body?](https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/q/35938/7982) oh, perhaps not; Celestia is not an "online program", rats.  
> **username_6**: I like that you included Earth and Mars.  You might like to add that you need to look down rather than up to see Mars and vice versa for Earth.  

---

### Answer by username_7 on 2018-05-04. Score: 2

This should be a relatively simple problem to solve - which is the Academician's way of saying "do it as a homework problem" :-) .

First thing: find some celestial mechanics calculator and determine when each outer and inner planet is visible in Mars' night sky. That gives you timings.

Next thing: compare the distance from each outer planet to Mars vs. Earth. Maybe start with closest and farthest approach as examples. That'll tell you both the angular extent of the planet as well as the relative brightness compared with Terran observations. Don't forget to add a fudge factor for the atmosphere.

In fact, probably the most obvious difference will be that *stars* no longer twinkle. (yeah I'm ignoring during serious dust storms). You could use a wicked large primary and have no need of adaptive optic corrections.

BTW there are photos of Earth as seen by the Mars rovers (or maybe just the surveying satellites, I forget) so you can get an idea of the color/features available.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: After thinking about username_3's [comment](https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/26166/how-will-planets-behave-in-the-night-sky-as-seen-by-mars-colonists?noredirect=1#comment45261_26166) a while I'm beginning to think the question is indeed too broad for this site. One way to fix would be to ask only about Earth's appearance from Mars, as it would contain all of the necessary science and math to address the other planets later. Since you've already posted an answer, I'd like to ask if you would be OK with me making that change?  
> **username_7**: @username_0  sure, or you could just post a new question on that specific topic.  

---

