Happy Valentines Day!

Also known as "Singles Awareness Day" or "The day before all the chocolate goes on sale".  Today also corresponds with a full moon so it's guaranteed to be an eventful day.  Most astronomers agree that strange things happen within two weeks of a full moon...

The full moon occurs when the Moon and Sun are on opposite sides of the Earth, so the Moon rises as the Sun sets and the Moon sets when the Sun rises.  This means that the Moon is up all night, and because the side facing Earth is fully illuminated by the Sun, it's also very bright - put those together and the full moon the most noticeable of moon phases.  In contrast, the crescent moon phase occurs when the Moon is almost between the Earth and the Sun, so when the Moon is in the crescent phase, we only see a sliver of the illuminated side and the Moon is very near the Sun in the sky.  This means that a crescent moon is both dim and primarily in the sky during the day, making it far less noticeable than the full moon.

The phases of the Moon depend on the relative positions of the Earth, Moon and Sun.  At different orientations we see different amounts of the illuminated side of the Moon

The reason why the full moon is often attributed with strange behavior and occurrences probably has more to do with how bright the night is when there's a full moon than any other sort of "lunar influences".  It's easy to stay out all night when there's a full moon to guide your way!

So enjoy the full moon Friday Valentine's day - tomorrow you can sleep in and then go buy discounted chocolate!

Please let me know if there are (astronomical) topics you'd like me to write about!