Visualizing circular motion around a Schwarzschild black hole

An observer who moves on a circular orbit around a Schwarzschild black hole with a constant but arbitrary velocity must compensate for the gravitational and centrifugal acceleration to stay on this orbit. The local reference frame of the observer undergoes a geodesic precession, which depends on the radius of the orbit and the velocity. We describe the details of this circular motion and an interactive program that shows what the observer would see.