Our Moon reaches perigee, (closest distance to Earth), for this orbit, on Monday May 13th. At that time the Moon will be at a distance of 28.89 Earth diameters, 228,977 miles (368,504 km) from the Earth.
The 4.68-day old waxing crescent, Moon rises is over the southwestern horizon at sunset local time and sets around midnight. About 12o east from the Moon is the ‘Heart of the Lion’, the star Regulus in Leo the Lion. Between this time and and the same time tomorrow the Moon will have passed Regulus and be a few degrees away from the star, but on the east side.
Does our Moon actually go around the Earth as this graphic shows? From our perspective on the Earth the Moon appears to circle around the Earth. However, in reality, the Moon orbits the Sun together with the Earth*
*Click here to read my 2006 Scope on the Sky column “The Real Shape of the Moon’s Orbit”. (PDF)
Read this very informative article about the Earth-Moon system and their orbital motions, written by Joe Hanson. “Do We Orbit the Moon?”
Click here to go to the Qué tal in the Current Skies web site for monthly observing information, or here to go to bobs-spaces.
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Wednesday June 19th the Moon will be crossing the plane of the ecliptic moving south. This is known as the descending node, one of two intersections the Moon’s orbital path (dark green line) has with the ecliptic.
