Upper panel: evolution of the orbital phases corresponding to the maximum (solid line) and minimum (dashed line) EC scattering efficiency as functions of H/H₀. The horizontal dotted lines mark the superior and inferior conjunction phases. Lower panel: phase offsets of the EC extrema relative to the conjunctions. The solid curve shows ﹩{\rm{\Delta }}\phi =1.0-{\phi }_{{\rm{\max }}}﹩, and the dashed curve shows ﹩{\rm{\Delta }}\phi =0.5-{\phi }_{{\rm{\min }}}﹩. As the emission zone moves inward (H/H₀ ≪ 1), both offsets approach zero, indicating that a compact inner emitter naturally peaks closer to the conjunction phases.