March 2018 Lunar Apogee Is Sunday, March 11, at 404,682 Kilometers

Summary: March 2018 lunar apogee is Sunday, March 11, at 404,682 kilometers, the month’s farthest center-to-center distance between moon and Earth.

waning crescent moon at 09:00 UTC (5 a.m. EDT), 13 minutes before March’s lunar apogee: Ernie Wright (USRA lead visualizer), John Keller (NASA GSFC scientist), Noah Petro (NASA GSFC scientist) and David Ladd (USRA producer) via NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

March 2018 lunar apogee, logging the month’s farthest center-to-center distance between moon and Earth, is Sunday, March 11, at 404,682 kilometers (almost 251,458 miles), at 09:13 Greenwich Mean Time/Coordinated Universal Time (5:13 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time).

The moon phase at March's apogee is waning crescent, the last of the eight-phase lunar cycle. As viewed from Earth, the lunar surface of the 23.93 day-old-moon displays approximately 32 percent illumination. In the waning crescent phase, illumination covers less than 50 percent of the lunar disc.

March 2018’s lunar apogee of 404,682 kilometers has a center-to-center distance that is 1,019 kilometers closer than February 2018’s lunar apogee of 405,701 kilometers. February’s lunar apogee happened Sunday, Feb. 11, at 14:16 UTC (9:16 Eastern Standard Time).

March 2018’s lunar apogee of 404,682 kilometers has a center-to-center distance that is 537 kilometers farther than April 2018’s lunar apogee of 404,145 kilometers. April logs lunar apogee Sunday, April 8, at 05:32 UTC (1:32 a.m. EDT). April 2018’s lunar apogee obtains 2018’s minimum, or closest, apogee value.

Astronomers note monthly extremes in the center-to-center distance between moon and Earth. Apogee (Ancient Greek: ἀπόγειον, apógeion, “away from Earth” + ἀπό, apó, “away” + γῆ, gê, “Earth”) represents the farthest center-to-center distance. Perigee (Ancient Greek: περί, perí, “near” + γῆ, gê, “Earth”) indicates the closest center-to-center distance between moon and Earth.

March 2018 lunar perigee, or closest center-to-center distance between moon and Earth, happens Monday, March 26, at 17:17 UTC (1:17 p.m. EDT). March’s perigee logs 369,104 kilometers.

March 2018’s lunar perigee of 369,104 kilometers is 5,166 kilometers farther than February 2018’s lunar perigee of 363,938 kilometers. February’s perigee occurred Tuesday, Feb. 27, at 14:48 UTC (9:48 a.m. EST).

March 2018’s lunar perigee of 369,104 kilometers is 391 kilometers farther than April 2018’s lunar perigee of 368,713 kilometers. April’s perigee takes place Friday, April 20, at 14:44 UTC (10:44 a.m. EDT).

The greatest range between apogee and perigee for the three successive 2018 months of February, March and April takes place in February. February’s lunar apogee of 405,701 kilometers was 41,763 kilometers farther than February’s lunar perigee of 363,938 kilometers.

Second place among the trio for apogee-perigee range goes to March. March 2018’s lunar apogee of 404,682 kilometers is 35,578 kilometers farther than March’s lunar perigee of 369,104 kilometers.

Of the three months, April’s apogee-perigee range is the smallest. April’s lunar apogee of 404,145 will be 35,432 kilometers farther than April’s lunar perigee of 368,713 kilometers.

Astronomers also attend to the year’s minimum and maximum values for apogee and perigee. Maximum apogee marks the year’s farthest center-to-center distance. Minimum apogee represents the closest point among the year’s far distances.

January 2018’s distance of 406,461 kilometers claims the year’s maximum, or farthest, apogee. January’s lunar apogee happened Monday, Jan. 15, at 02:10 UTC (Sunday, Jan. 14, at 9:10 EST). April 8’s center-to-center distance of 404,145 kilometers qualifies for minimum, or closest, apogee. The year’s maximum apogee of 406,461 kilometers is 2,316 kilometers farther than the year’s minimum apogee of 404,145 kilometers.

March 2018’s lunar apogee of 404,682 kilometers is 537 kilometers farther than the year’s minimum, or closest, apogee of 404,145 kilometers. March 2018’s lunar apogee of 404,682 kilometers is 1,779 kilometers closer than the year’s maximum, or farthest, apogee of 406,461 kilometers.

Maximum perigee signifies the farthest point in the year’s closest distances. Minimum perigee signals the closest of the year’s close distances. The year’s minimum perigee is also known as proxigee.

October 2018’s distance of 370,201 kilometers claims the year’s maximum, or farthest, perigee. October’s lunar perigee takes place Wednesday, Oct. 31, at 20:05 UTC (4:05 p.m. EDT). January 2018’s perigee of 356,566 kilometers represents 2018’s proxigee. The year’s maximum, or farthest, perigee of 370,201 kilometers is 13,635 kilometers farther than the year’s minimum perigee of 356,566 kilometers.

March 2018’s lunar perigee of 369,104 kilometers is 1,097 kilometers closer than the year’s maximum, or farthest, perigee of 370,201 kilometers. March 2018’s lunar perigee of 369,104 kilometers is 12,538 kilometers farther than the year’s proxigee, or minimum perigee, of 356,566 kilometers.

March 2018’s apogee and perigee take place in the year’s second blue moon month. The year’s first blue moon happened at the end of January. A blue moon month features two full moons within the same month. January’s first full moon happened Tuesday, Jan. 2, at 02:24 UTC (Monday, Jan. 1, at 9:24 p.m. EST). January’s blue moon closed the month with an appearance Wednesday, Jan. 31, at 13:27 UTC (8:27 a.m. EST).

March’s first full moon appears Friday March 2, at 00:51 UTC (Thursday, March 1, at 7:51 p.m. EST). March’s apogee is obtained 9 days 8 hours 22 minutes after the month’s first full moon.

March logs lunar perigee 4 days 19 hours 20 minutes prior to the month’s blue, or second full, moon. March’s blue moon appears Saturday, March 31, at 12:37 UTC (8:37 a.m. EDT).

The takeaway for March 2018 lunar apogee, happening Sunday, March 11, at 404,682 kilometers, is that the month’s milestones of apogee, or farthest distance, and of perigee, or closest distance, succeed and precede, respectively, March’s first and second full moons.

waxing gibbous moon at 17:00 UTC (1 p.m. EDT), 17 minutes before March’s lunar perigee: Ernie Wright (USRA lead visualizer), John Keller (NASA GSFC scientist), Noah Petro (NASA GSFC scientist) and David Ladd (USRA producer) via NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

waning crescent moon at 09:00 UTC (5 a.m. EDT), 13 minutes before March’s lunar apogee: Ernie Wright (USRA lead visualizer), John Keller (NASA GSFC scientist), Noah Petro (NASA GSFC scientist) and David Ladd (USRA producer) via NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio @ https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4604

waxing gibbous moon at 17:00 UTC (1 p.m. EDT), 17 minutes before March’s lunar perigee: Ernie Wright (USRA lead visualizer), John Keller (NASA GSFC scientist), Noah Petro (NASA GSFC scientist) and David Ladd (USRA producer) via NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio @ https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4604

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