Bonnie Waddell, Age 12, Of St. Catharines, Ont., Canada, for her question;

How far exactly is the earth from the moon?

The moon revolves around the earth, but its orbit is not a perfect circle. Then the distance between us and our satellite must vary, depending upon where it happens to be on its monthly journey around the earth. At apogee, the point at which the two heavenly bodies are farthest apart, they are separated by 252,948 miles. At perigree, where they come closest, they are 221,593 miles apart.

The moon's orbit is almost, but not quite, on a level with the earth's equator. It is tipped at an ang1e and this, too, makes the positions of the two heavenly bodies vary in relation to each other. Actually, they return to identical positions only after a cycle of 18 years. Taking all these hoedown high jinks into consideration, the average distance between us and the moon is 238,840 miles, a little more than a quarter million miles, which is roughly ten times the distance around the earth's equator.