Epi, epi, epicycles!

Boy if you ever wondered about those crazy epicycles that folks had so much trouble explaining when they assumed we were the center of the solar system (universe?) and not the Sun, take a look at this Astronomy Picture of the Day.

What you will see is a wonderful projection of the position of Saturn from 2005 until 2008. And when you see it back tracking - making little loops - well, that's just our old Earth catching up with it each of our years and passing it - since our orbit is much smaller. The bright star near the lower left is Regulus and above it is the familiar sickle of Leo.