posted December 25, 2004 12:30 PM              

Although astronomers often say the moon "circles" the Earth, it doesn't, not exactly. The moon's orbit is really an ellipse. One side of the ellipse is 356,400 km from Earth; this is called perigee. The other side of the ellipse is 406,700 km from Earth; this is called apogee. Apogee is about 50,000 km farther from Earth than perigee..."