Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for St Valentine’s Day, Friday, February 14th.  The sun will rise at 7:44.  It’ll be up for 10 hours and 25 minutes, setting at 6:09.   The Moon, at full today, will rise at 6:15 this evening.

Tonight’s full moon won’t be the type that young lovers would want to look up to because, well it’s February, and it’s cold.  Let’s wait until June.  But one can bundle up and get the telescope or binoculars out to view the face of our only natural satellite.  Even though the actual reflectance is a bit less than 13% of the light that the sun sends its way.  If it were snow covered it would really be bright.  Looking at it with or without binoculars one can see the man in the moon face.  At the bottom of the moon or bottom right as the moon rises is the splashiest crater of all, the crater Tycho.  The crater itself seems to have a dark halo around it.  Also one can see rays extending great distances across the moon from it.

Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan.  They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Tycho’s rays at full moon are actually secondary craters thrown by debris from the initial impact. At full moon they are no longer shadow filled so show as being bright. Image created using Virtual Moon Atlas.