09:29:29 PST Elongations occur when the planet position in its orbital path is at tangent
to the view from Earth. Because these inner planets (Mercury and Venus) are inside the
Earth's orbit, their positions as viewed from the Earth are never very far from the
position of the Sun. When a planet is at Elongation is it furthest from the Sun as viewed
from Earth, so it's view is best at that point. There are two kinds of Elongations: The
Eastern Elongation occurs when the planet is in the evening sky and the Western Elongation
Occurs when a planet is in the morning sky.