February Full Moon - VENUS.....and VALENTINES DAY (week). Let's celebrate LOVE songs!

Pizza and the Moon - written and sung by our one and only BLONDESENSE LIZ (aka Blonde Lemon Pledge).

LIZ... WILL YOU BE MY VALENTINE? you rock girl!!



Lawdy Miss Clawdy that moon is blinding this morning. It was spectacular last night. I felt like I was surfing the hemisphere with the the Moon on one side and Venus on the other. It felt like Venus, (which looked like The Mother Ship, it was so bright) was gonna pick me up and take me to the Moon!
Be sure to hang out in the middle of the street at dusk tonight (and for the rest of the month) to catch both the Moon and Venus rising. Venus will soon fade into the horizon and won't be visible for a while.

This inferno world will be a beautiful evening star from January until mid-March. Venus will begin the year appearing slightly more than half full and grow into a large, thin crescent by March. The magnitude will increase from -4.3 to -4.6 and its size will grow from 21 arcseconds to nearly one arcminute by late March before moving into the morning sky and then shrinking and fading for the rest of the year.

Venus goes through phases like the Moon because of its position between Earth and the Sun. When it is more of a crescent phase it is closer to us and bigger, and also its angle makes it look farther from the Sun and places it in a darker sky. For these reasons, Venus is brighter in its crescent phase than when it is near full phase! The crescent phases of Venus can be detected through binoculars or a telescope.

Venus can get as bright as magnitude -4.7. From fall to winter of 2008/2009, Venus continues to brighten a little bit every night. Venus, the planet named after the Goddess of Love, will reach its brightest just after Valentine's Day 2009. On November 30, 2008, the year's brightest planetary conjunction will occur when dazzling Venus sits just two degrees from bright Jupiter in the southwestern sky. Venus will make other stunning pairings while it is up in the west/southwest, such as on December 31, 2008, when the moon sits beside it or January 22, 2009, when binoculars or a telescope put Venus a degree away from Uranus.

By March 2009, Venus will sink back toward the horizon and be washed out by the sun's light.

Venus will achieve its greatest eastern elongation of 47.1° on 2009 JAN 14. From Chicagoland at 30 minutes after sunset it will reach its highest altitude of 35.5° on FEB 03. Its greatest brilliance at magnitude -4.6 is expected around FEB 20. Apparent retrograde motion will commence on MAR 06. Inferior conjunction between Earth and Sun by right ascension will occur on MAR 25 and by celestial longitude on MAR 27.

Here's a great site (thank you Father Tyme) that will explain everything about surfing the celestial -- It's Jack the Stargazer!! He's a riot! I never knew about the Valentine's Day Star - can't wait!

So to honor the Goddess of Love, let's post our favorite songs with the word LOVE in the title. Send me your pick in the comments and I'll add it to the post for our Valentine's Day -- LOVE Songs Post.

Of Course I can't decide. LOVEFOOL by the Cardigans is my most recent favorite



and my ALL TIME favorite is L-O-V-E.....
is for the way you look at me






So send me your LOVE songs!!