<span title="Apogee,Perigree-Small,Big??">Apogee,Perigree-Small,Big...</span>

Question

which is which?

its in the whole illusion thing.

but which one is suppose to look the biggest when it happens?

Answer 1

Apogee and perigee are orbital nodes, you can&#039;t see them and they don&#039;t have a size, so neither will &quot;look the biggest&quot;.  Perigee is the closest approach, so perhaps an object at that point would look biggest because of perspective.

Answer 2

Apogee is when the satellite is farthest Away from earth.

Apogee=Away

Perigee is when the satellite is in closest Proximity to the earth

Perigee=Proximity

When the moon is closer, it looks bigger, but not by much. You can&#039;t tell with the naked eye.

Answer 3

&quot;The Moon moves on an orbit which is not circular but elliptical, with the Earth at one focus. At one end of this ellipse it makes its closest approach to the Earth (356 410 km or 221 473 miles), known as perigee. At the other end it reaches its greatest separation (406 697 km or 252 722 miles), called apogee. The period between successive perigees or apogees is called the anomalistic month, equal to 27.56 days.&quot;

&quot;The Moon&#039;s orbit around the Earth is elliptical, with a substantial eccentricity (as major Solar System bodies go) of 5.49%. In addition, the tidal effect of the Sun&#039;s gravitational field increases the eccentricity when the orbit&#039;s major axis is aligned with the Sun-Earth vector or, in other words, the Moon is full or new.

The combined effects of orbital eccentricity and the Sun&#039;s tides result in a substantial difference in the apparent size and brightness of the Moon at perigee and apogee. Extreme values for perigee and apogee distance occur when perigee or apogee passage occurs close to new or full Moon, and long-term extremes are in the months near to Earth&#039;s perihelion passage (closest approach to the Sun, when the Sun&#039;s tidal effects are strongest) in the first few days of January.&quot;