A syzygy sometimes results in an occultation, transit, or an eclipse.
Anoccultation occurs when an apparently larger body passes in front of an apparently smaller one.
Atransit occurs when a smaller body passes in front of a larger one.
In the combined case where the smaller body regularly transits the larger, an occultation is also termed a secondary eclipse.
Aneclipse occurs when a body totally or partially disappears from view, either by an occultation, as with a solar eclipse, or by passing into the shadow of another body, as with a lunar eclipse (thus both are listed on NASA's eclipse page).
As electromagnetic rays are affected by gravitation, when they pass by a heavy mass they are bent. As a result, the heavy mass acts as a form of gravitational lens. If the light source, the gravitating mass and the observer stand in a line, one sees what is termed an Einstein ring.
A syzygy causes the fortnightly phenomena of spring and neap tides. At the new and full moon, the Sun and Moon are in syzygy. Their tidal forces act to reinforce each other, and the ocean both rises higher and falls lower than the average. Conversely, at the first and third quarter, the Sun and Moon are at right angles, their tidal forces counteract each other, and the tidal range is smaller than average.[5] Tidal variations can also be measured in the Earth's crust, and these Earth tide influences may affect the frequency of earthquakes.
The word syzygy is often used to describe interesting configurations of astronomical objects in general. For example, one such case occurred on March 21, 1894, around 23:00 GMT, when Mercury transited the Sun as would have been seen from Venus, and Mercury and Venus both simultaneously transited the Sun as seen from Saturn.
The term is also used to describe situations when all the planets are on the same side of the Sun although they are not necessarily in a straight line, such as on March 10, 1982.[7]
Apparent planetary alignment involving Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn; the Moon is also shown, as the brightest object.
Because the orbits of all the planets in the Solar System (as well as the Moon) are inclined by only a few degrees, they always appear very near the ecliptic in our sky. Therefore, although an apparent planetary alignment may appear as a line (actually, a great arc), the planets are not necessarily aligned in space.
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