Astronomy Glossary: Opposition

What do all these terms mean?

With Saturn coming into opposition on August 2nd at 0600 UTC, it makes for the best time of year to view the ringed gas giant. But what does opposition even mean? Opposition is when earth's orbit puts us between the sun and another celestial body. A planet at opposition is at its closest approach to earth and is best suitable for observing. It's at this time the target will be at its brightest and largest in our night skies.

There are many other astronomical terms used to describe all sorts or objects or events so I'll include a link to reference these definitions if you are interested.

www.seasky.org/astronomy/astronomy-glossary.html

Below is the star Polaris, aka the north star surrounded by the Integrated Flux Nebula or IFN. This is from the pro dataset released by Marco Rocchetto. Awesome capture Marco!

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