Figure 3-4 The Path of Mars in 2011–2012 From October 2011 through August 2012, Mars moved across the zodiac constellations Cancer, Leo, and Virgo. Mars’s motion was direct (from west to east, or from right to left in this figure) most of the time but was retrograde (from east to west, or from left to right in this figure) during February and March 2011. Notice that the speed of Mars relative to the stars is not constant: The planet travels farther across the sky from October 1 to December 1 than it does from December 1 to February 1.