The sun's gravity will pull the moon farther away from Earth than it's been in over five years on Nov. 19, though it'll be impossible for you to witness the lunar milestone for yourself with the naked eye in Earth's sky.

Each new lunar orbit is subtly different from the last, thanks in part to the overbearing gravitational influence of the sun, which tugs at the moon, forcing it to take an elliptical path around our planet that would appear as a slightly squashed circle if viewed from above. As a result, the Earth-moon distance is in a constant state of constant flux, shifting closer or farther away depending on where it is in its 27-day recurring orbit.

The most distant point in the lunar orbit is known as apogee, while the closest is known to astronomers as perigee. The most exceptiona

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