Wiktionary
n. (context astronomy English) Motion of a body (either real or apparent) in a direction opposite to that of its normal motion, or to that of other similar or related bodies
Usage examples of "retrograde motion".
In the same manner he named the stars of the crab, those where the sun, having arrived at the tropic, retreated by a slow retrograde motion like the crab or cancer.
The ancient Greeks labored to account for such retrograde motion but it wasn't till Copernicus elaborated the heliocentric view with the sun at the center of the solar system that the situation was made clear.
But now, because of the miracle of my retrograde motion in the time stream, I was seeing the play acted out in reverse.
But, contrary to my expectations, the Nautilus took a decided retrograde motion.
Ptolemy showed that if the epicycle turned roughly once a year, and were the appropriate size, the resulting apparent motion would show the correct retrograde motion.
Otherwise, folk will hardly know it's there, except that their new neighbors across the way will occasionally make loops in the sky and exhibit retrograde motion.
He glanced up at the clock behind me-blinked as he realized for the first time that it was a CounterClock, with retrograde motion and numbers from œ.
A wave of retrograde motion ran through the huntsmen nearest to this portent.
And one small belt of this sun's present crop of planetoids was in retrograde motion, prompting speculation among the ED crew that two counter-revolving planets might once have existed here and then collided.