Mercury in the Schultz Diagram

Elemente der Naturwissenschaft 96, 2012, P. 76-78 | DOI: 10.18756/edn.96.76

Abstract:

Some people are perplexed by the ‘Mercury diagrams’ of Joachim Schultz1. These denote the motion of Mercury over the course of a year, as seen from Earth, with respect to an immobile Sun at the centre. They use the astronomical co-ordinates called Right Ascension and Declination, which means that it is motion with respect to the Equator-plane of the Earth. So these diagrams show Mercury’s apparent motion with respect to the Earth’s equatorial plane. [...]