Latest Past Events
NEW MOON
From wikipedia: "The lunar phase or phase of the moon is the shape of the illuminated (sunlit) portion of the … Read More →
Mercury at Inferior Conjunction
From wikipedia: "In astronomy a conjunction occurs when two astronomical objects or spacecraft have either the same right ascension or … Read More →
Moon at Apogee: 405870 km
From timeanddate.com: "The Moon's path around the Earth is elliptical - with one side of the orbit closer to Earth … Read More →
Glossary
Terms and definitions reproduced from basicastro.com.
Aphelion: Farthest position of a planet from the Sun.
Perihelion: Closest position of a planet from the Sun.
Apogee: the position of the Moon farthest from Earth.
Perigee: the position of the Moon closest from Earth.
Superior Conjunction: Venus or Mercury is on the opposite side of the Sun from Earth.
Inferior Conjunction: Venus or Mercury is between the Earth and Sun.
Greatest Elongation: elongation is the angle between the Sun and a planet as seen from Earth, during eastern elongation, the planet appears as an evening star, during western elongation, the planet appears as a morning star.
Opposition: position in the orbit of a planet when opposites the Sun as seen from Earth.
Conjunction: position in the orbit of a planet when appears closer to the Sun as seen from Earth.
Occultation: Moon occults or eclipses a planet or a star.
Events, dates, and times taken from (1) The Calendar of Astronomical Events, Courtesy of Fred Espenak, www.AstroPixels.com – (2) www.seasky.org – (3) www.universetoday.com – (4) earthsky.org – (5) in-the-sky.org – (6) aa.usno.navy.mil/publications/reports/ap16_for_web.pdf.
