Elongation (astronomy) - Elongation of Moons of Other Planets

Elongation of Moons of Other Planets

Sometimes elongation may instead refer to the angular distance of a moon of another planet from its central planet, for instance the angular distance of Io from Jupiter. Here we can also talk about greatest eastern elongation and greatest western elongation. In the case of the moons of Uranus, one often talks about greatest northern elongation and greatest southern elongation instead, due to the very high inclination of Uranus' axis of rotation..