The Moon's orbit around Earth isn't a perfect circle, it's an ellipse (eccentricity 5%)
What a difference 5 percent makes. That's how much the Moon's orbit is out-of-round, and it means the Moon is sometimes closer to Earth than at other times.
These two pictures were made by Riccardo Di Nasso from Pisa, Italy. He captured the Moon at its closest, a point called perigee, on Oct. 5 and combined that with an image when it was at apogee, or its farthest point, on Sept. 22.
The Moon's average distance from Earth is about 238,900 miles (384,402 kilometers).
There is good reason to pay attention to the next full Moon, Oct. 27. It occurs near apogee, and it will also be the feature player in a total lunar eclipse.
-- SPACE.com Staff
Credit and ©: Riccardo Di Nasso
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