The trajectory of the Moon has a nonintuitive aspect when observed from the Sun. Misconceptions about this motion are widespread and found even in textbooks. In this work we discuss what is wrong with the common sense notions about the trajectory of the Moon around the Sun, and investigate how pervasive these notions are.We also present a simple description of the geometry of the lunar orbit as seen from the Sun and find that the trajectory of the Moon is quite exceptional among the satellites in the solar system.
physics education; orbital motion; misconceptions
