The Moon's movement

The orbit of the Moon

The Moon revolves around the Earth in the same sense that the Earth revolves around the Sun. Looking down on the North Pole, the Moon appears to make an anticlockwise orbit around the Earth.

The Moon's orbit is an ellipse with the Earth at one of the foci, and it obeys Kepler's Laws in the same way that planets do. Perigee is the point in its orbit when it is closest to the Earth and at this time the Moon will appear largest in the sky. At apogee the Moon is at its furthest from the Earth and appears smallest in the sky.

Each day the Moon rises in the east and sets in the west as a result of the Earth's rotation. It moves about 13° eastwards against the background of stars as a consequence of its revolution around the Earth.