Depiction of the orbit of the MWC 656 system as seen from above. The optical star MWC 656 lies at the focus of the ellipse, and the BH follows the elliptical orbit. The size of the star is scaled with respect to the BH orbit. The MAGIC, XMM-Newton, and AGILE observations are overlaid along the orbit. Circles represent steps of 0.1 orbital phases, while triangles mark the periastron and apastron phases, which are linked by a dotted line. Squares mark the position of the inferior and superior conjunctions.