Whoops!! I did tis way too early!!! The Moon is actually at perigee Not apogee.
Our Moon reaches perigee, (closest to Earth), for this orbit, on Monday March 1st. For this perigee the 18.25-day old waning gibbous Moon will be at a distance of 28.64 Earth diameters, 227,049 miles (365,400 km) from the Earth.
On the date of the perigee Moon the waning gibbous Moon will rise around mid-evening local time. Interestingly, as it rises, the Moon will be part of the mnemonic: “Follow the arc to Arcturus and then speed to Spica.”
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 Scope on the Sky column “The Real Shape of the Moon’s Orbit”. (PDF)
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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