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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Saturday February 20th the 9-day old waxing gibbous Moon will be crossing the plane of the ecliptic moving north. This is known as the 
Does our Moon actually go around the Earth as many graphics show? 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*
Saturday February 6th the 25-day old waning crescent Moon crosses 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. 
