CalculationTime · The Wanderers' Lane

Seven wanderers, one road

The Sun, Moon and planets never leave a narrow band of sky. Here that band is laid out as a racetrack: watch who meets whom, who is up tonight, and who is running backwards.

Southern face Looking south · wanderers creep anticlockwise ↺
Northern face Looking north · wanderers creep clockwise ↻
 
 

Charting three years of the lane…

Play speed
Hold still
Trails

Who's where

The lane's almanac

Every meeting, turn and eclipse in the next twelve months. Pick one to send the dial there.

Why one lane

The planets orbit in nearly the same flat plane as Earth, so from here they all trace the Sun's yearly road, the ecliptic. The Moon strays at most about 5° from it. Heights above and below the road are magnified three times on the dial so you can see them.

Backward loops

Turn trails on and hold the stars still. When Earth overtakes an outer planet, it seems to stop, run backwards and loop. That's retrograde motion. Mars' loop peaks at its February 2027 opposition.

Reading tonight

Hold the Sun still and the lane becomes a night-sky clock. The top is up all night, the bottom is lost in daylight, one side is the evening sky and the other is the morning sky. The two faces mirror each other, just like the Twin Clocks.

Positions come from Astronomy Engine (Don Cross, MIT) as seen from Earth's centre, the same ephemeris behind the Twin Clocks. The Moon can sit up to about 1° from where you see it, so close Moon meetings shift a little with your location. Times are in your own time zone. Planet brightness is given as magnitude: lower is brighter.