Elongation (astronomy)

In astronomy, a planet's elongation is the angle between the Sun and the planet, with Earth as the reference point. The greatest elongation of a given planet occurs when this inner planet’s position, in its orbital path to the Sun, is at tangent to the observer on Earth. Given the planets able to elongate are well within the area of Earth's orbit of the Sun, observation of such a phenomenon should not pose that much a challenge, compared to deep sky objects, for example. When a planet is at its greatest elongation, it is farthest from the Sun as viewed from Earth, so its view is also best at that point.