Our Moon reaches apogee, (greatest distance from Earth), on Wednesday December 12th. At that time the Moon will more or less be at a distance of 31.76 Earth diameters 251,765 miles (405,177 km) from the Earth.
Does our Moon actually go around the Earth? 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*
On the day of the apogee the 6-day old waxing crescent Moon, an hour after sunset local time (4:55 pm CST), will be over the southwestern horizon and joined by several planets. Over the southern horizon is the planet Mars. Neptune and Uranus are also shown however at 8th Neptune requires optical assistance or a camera to become visible, while Uranus at around 6th magnitude could be visible with binoculars or telescope.
*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.
Monday December 3rd the position of the planet Mars, with respect to the Earth and the Sun, places this planet at what is called eastern quadrature. At that orbital position Mars, and actually any outer planet, is at a 90 degree angle from the Earth as this graphic shows, and the 
At this inferior conjunction Mercury will not be directly in line with the Earth and the Sun – on the ecliptic. Mercury has an orbital inclination of 7o with respect to the ecliptic. So like our Moon, Mercury during each complete orbit, will cross the plane of the ecliptic moving north (ascending node) and also moving south (descending node). For this inferior conjunction Mercury will be about 5o north from the ecliptic, approaching its maximum angle of 7o.