Moon essentials: Orbit

 

This visualization displays the shape and tilt of the Moon's orbit and the ways these change over the course of 8.5 years. 

Shows the tilt of the orbit and the slow rotation of the nodes (where the Moon's orbit intersects the orbit plane of the Earth) and the apses (the near and far points).

Initially, we see the orbit edge-on, but this quickly moves to a view from above (or north of) the plane of the Earth's orbit around the Sun, called the ecliptic, here colored purple. The light blue ring represents the plane of the Moon's orbit, which is tilted about five degrees to the ecliptic. The darker half is below (south of) the ecliptic. The yellow arrow points toward the Sun.

N.B.

This is a simplified model that ignores the short-term influence of the Sun and the rest of the solar system.

Reference:

SVS NASA