For those of us not lucky enough to be camping under the stars this week, you can still enjoy a full moon tonight (I know some states over east are experiencing clouds and rain but in WA the skies are very clear and it will be great viewing tonight). Mars is also at its brightest at the moment and visible all night - tonight it is 10 degrees north of the moon. The only other planets in the night sky at the moment are Mercury (very difficult to see, low in the west post-sunset), Venus (low in west setting about 8.30 or 9.30 DST), Jupiter - close to venus, and Saturn rising about 8pm (9pm DST).
Oh and here's some interesting moon facts - did you know there is a "far side" of the moon that we can't see from Earth? Long ago, the Earth's gravitational effects slowed the moon's rotation about its axis. Once the moon's rotation slowed enough to match its orbital period (the time it takes the moon to go around Earth) the effect stabilized. So the moon goes around the Earth once and spins on its axis once, all in the same amount of time, and it shows us just one face the whole time.
Also, the distance between the center of Earth and the moon's center varies throughout each orbit. This fact is why sometime full moons look bigger than others because it is in fact sometimes closer.
The moon is also not round - it's shaped like an egg!
People who love the ocean already know this, but at full moon and new moon, the sun, Earth and moon are lined up, producing higher than normal tides (called spring tides, for the way they spring up).
And so, here endeth today's astronomy lesson ;)
Enjoy!
Michelle