It is easy to believe that the moon doesn't rotate (spin) since we always see the same face, the near side. But we would also see what we call the far side (it's not dark; it has a day/night cycle just like the near side) if the moon were truly not rotating with respect to the stars as it orbits Earth.

You can demonstrate for yourself that the moon must be spinning with respect to the stars. For the demonstration you will need help from a friend and a rotating office chair. Place the chair in a room so your friend can comfortably sit in the chair, with her arms fully extended in front of her, and rotate around a full circle without bumping into anything. Have your friend hold a magazine with its front cover facing her. Your friend's head is standing in for Earth and her eyes are pretend people watching the magazine standing in for the moon. The walls and furniture in the rest of the room serve as background, unmoving stars in the sky. Pick a spot out of the way and watch.

As your friend slowly turns herself on the chair ask her, several times during one full turn, if she sees the front cover of the magazine as she goes around a circle and if the view of it is changing. She will answer that she sees the front cover and it is not changing, since she is simply holding the magazine at arm's length. She will see the background room (stars) change as she makes her full turn.

What do you see when she rotates the chair? If she starts facing you, you see the back cover of the magazine. As she rotates around, you see the back cover appear more and more edge on. By the time she has made 1/4 turn you see the magazine edge on and neither cover is visible. As she continues to turn you start to see the front cover and by the time she completes 1/2 turn you see the front cover as she is seeing it (as long as her head isn't blocking your view). As she continues turning, the front cover starts to appear smaller and by 3/4 turn the magazine is edge on again. Continuing the turn, the back cover appears until it is fully facing you at the end of her turn. The magazine has made one rotation as it has made one revolution around your friend: this is called synchronous rotation because the rotation (spin) takes the same amount of time as one complete orbit (turn around your friend).

Suppose the moon (magazine) is not rotating with respect to the stars (room). Now your friend picks one wall to keep the back cover facing. As she slowly turns on the chair she also has to slowly turn the magazine to keep the front cover facing the chosen wall. She sees the magazine's front cover slowly turn to edge on at 1/4 turn. Then she starts seeing the back cover until it is full face on at 1/2 turn and then the magazine shrinks to edge on at 3/4 turn. Finishing the turning the front cover now grows to full face on at the end of the turn. At the same time you are seeing the magazine changing its position as it circles your friend but the same cover of the magazine is always facing you.

The moon is rotating at the same rate that it revolves around Earth so we see only the near side hemisphere. It is in synchronous rotation with its orbit.

The flags left on the moon by the Apollo astronauts were all supported across the top by a rod extending outward from the top of the flag pole. This allowed the flag to hang fully spread and be displayed in its full glory. You can see the astronauts assembling the flag pole and extension and then placing the flag at http://youtu.be/k1B2UPkelNw. The only reason the flag moves is because the astronauts are setting it up. For a few seconds after they let it go, it swings a little bit and then that dies out and there is no more motion.

The only "wind" on the moon came when the Lunar Module, carrying the astronauts, turned on its rocket engine and lifted off the surface to rendezvous with the command module orbiting the moon with the third astronaut. The engine exhaust briefly creates wind as it is deflected sideways by the LM's descent stage (which stayed on the moon). (After exiting downwards from the engine in the ascent stage, the exhaust went sideways until the ascent stage was high enough that the exhaust no longer impinged on the descent stage or surface.) You can see the ascent, as captured by the lunar rover camera on Apollo 15 at http://youtu.be/BMBcLg0DkLA It shows debris scattering everywhere, pushed along by the rocket exhaust. You can see the view from the ascending Lunar Module at http://youtu.be/Db_6eF5Zsg0. It displays debris caught and carried by rocket exhaust sideways.

I don't understand why some people think the landings on the moon were faked. Americans built the hardware, went to the moon, and brought back rocks from there.

Stephen Edberg
Astronomer
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology

The book "Astronomical Algorithms" by Jean Meeus (Willmann-Bell) has a chapter on calculating lunar perigees and apogees. I also found a large number of websites with a Google search using "calculate moon's perigee and apogee". I expect you can find what you are looking for and check your adopted approach with these resources. I am also fond of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada's annual Observer's Handbook, which provides events for each day of the year by month, including perigees and apogees.

Stephen Edberg
Astronomer
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology