Posted by Leilani on Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 11:55pm.
We cannot draw figures for you.
Start by drawing four circles around the sun, of appropriate scaled radii. Those will be the orbits of Merciry, Venus, Earth and Mars.
Put the Earth (arbitrarily) to the right of the sun. Add another small circle around the Earth representing the moon's orbit.
If Mars is at opposition, it is to the right of the Earth, along the Sun-Earth-Mars horizontal line. That s as close as it can get to Earth.
If the moon is full, it is along the same horizontal line, between Earth and Mars, and opposite from the sun side of Earth.
Venus will be located at one of the two positions where a line from Earth is tangent to the Venus orbit. Western elongation is the upper of the two tangents. (As the Earth turns, the Venus rises before the sun.)
Review the definition of superior conjunction for Mercury and that will tell you where to put it. It will be in front of the sun, not behind it, as seen from Earth.
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