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Is this a synonym for "angular elongation"? mid Elongation = difference of ecliptic longitudes [1] --84.179.84.159 11:04, 3 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]
From the Wikipedia page for "Bicycle Frame", the term 'elongation' led me to this astronomy page. We need a DISAMBIGUATION, not a direct link to the astronomy Elongation.
I am pretty sure that the following sentence in this article is not true: "Since asteroids are relatively small their magnitude can vary greatly depending on elongation." It seems to me that size is completely irrelevant to variation in magnitude. If two objects of the same shape but of different size are in the same orbit with respect to the Earth, their magnitudes will be different, but the variation in magnitude will be identical. In other words, object A will become the same factor brighter or dimmer as hypothetical object B of different size, if traveling along the same relative path as seen from Earth. I deleted a similar assertion about Mars' variation of magnitude, and I propose deleting it here also, unless someone can show me why I am wrong with an authoritative source. There are a lot of other factors that could cause a body to vary more in relative magnitude, such as irregular shape (asteroids) or variation in surface features (e.g. Saturn's moon Iapetus). But if the planets Jupiter and Mars were to be swapped, the dramatic variation in brightness now exhibited by Mars would be exactly matched by Jupiter's, though of course Jupiter would always be brighter because of its much larger size. CosineKitty (talk) 02:13, 18 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Follow-up: I went ahead and reworded the sentence to indicate that asteroid magnitude variation is due to them being in a orbit that is not much different in size from the Earth's. CosineKitty (talk) 14:01, 19 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
