About the Moon Distance Calculator

The Moon Distance Calculator calculates the approximate distance between the center of the Moon and the center of the Earth. It calculates the dates and timing of the lunar perigee and apogee in your local time.

How to Use?

Using the Moon Distance Calculator is easy. Just choose a location available through the World Clock, and the calculator will tell you the date, time and distance of the Moon's perigee and apogee throughout the year. All timing is given in the local time of your selected location. Daylight Saving Time (DST) is also taken into consideration if your chosen location follows it during parts of the year.

What is Lunar Perigee & Apogee?

Very simply, lunar perigee and lunar apogee refer to the distance of the Moon from the Earth.

The Moon orbits around the Earth in an elliptical path, with one side of the orbit closer to Earth than the other. The side of the orbit closer to the Earth is called the lunar perigee, while the side futher from the Earth is called the lunar apogee.

Learn more about the lunar perigee & apogee

Happens Once a Month

Both lunar apogee and lunar perigee occur about once a month. When a full Moon occurs during a lunar perigee, it may look larger than a normal full Moon. The diameter of a full Moon at perigee looks about 12-14% larger than a full Moon at apogee.

What are the different phases of the Moon?

Local Time Conversion

The Moon Distance Calculator takes into account DST at the selected location, except for UTC/GMT. To display the moon distances for a location within this timezone, London for example, please select the city - not UTC/GMT.

Selecting Future and Past Years

It is possible to select future years to find out the dates and timing of the Moon's apogee and perigee. However, because of the possibility of changes in a country's DST rules and timezones, these dates and timings may change in the future.

If you choose a year before the introduction of standard time zone at your location, the calculator will display the time for lunar apogee and perigee in terms of the local mean solar time. The local mean solar time is an average yearly value based on the moment when the Sun passes a location's meridian. This may differ by up to 17 minutes time calculated using a watch.

Similarly, the dates of the lunar perigee and apogee are based on the prevelant calendar followed by the location during that year. So, for example if you choose a location that followed the Julian Calendar, the calculator will provide the dates based on the Julian Calendar. All present and future calculations provide dates based on the Gregorian Calendar Calendar.

When did countries make the switch to the Gregorian Calendar?

Calculation Accuracy

The Moon Distance Calculator provides the distance distance between the Earth’s center and the Moon’s center, when the Moon is at its apogee and perigee. The accuracy of these calculations is high and the distance given by our Calculator is within a few hundred miles or kilometers of the actual distance of the Moon.

The accuracy of the times calculated are approximate and are within the hour. All times are based on the user’s local time. The local time is adjusted if the selected location observes DST during parts of the year.

Upcoming DST changes

Topics: Help, Moon, Daylight Saving Time