At the moment in Scotland, the moon is incredibly bright at night, much more so than it is usually, even during a usual full moon.  Why is this?

I assume that the brightness of the moon is based on the angle of the earth, moon and sun, but if so then what is the critical angles to get the brightest moon possible?  When will this next occur?

Why 'on earth' do we see only one side of the moon ?

Even as a physics major I have to scratch my head looking at the varied descriptions of why there is a tidal bulge of water on the side opposite the moon.  Some argue it's centrifugal force, some argue it's gravitational gradient. So here's a serious question -- if the Earth and the Moon were simply held apart by a big stick, and not rotating, would there still be a bulge of water on the side away from the moon?

With planning and construction of semi-permanent moon bases and similar for Mars, infrastructure will have already been considered, including electrics. Have the engineers pondered this question too? And have they decided on a solution.

Over the billions of years that the Earth has been orbitted by the Moon, its rotation has slowed by the slight resistance to the tide as it travels round the planet (relative to the Earth of course, it would appear static relative to the Moon).  The tide is of course caused by the gravitational pull of the moon and the equal and opposite gravitational forces of the Earth and the Moon keep the Moon nicely in orbit around the Earth.

As the force causing the braking effect of the tide is exerted by the Moon's gravity, there should be an equal and opposite force to the braking that is being exerted on the Moon.  As the tide is working as a brake on the rotation of the Earth, it would be expected that the bulge of tidal water is slightly ahead of the Moon with the Moon's gravity pulling it back.  I suspect that this bulge slightly offsetting the Earth's centre of gravity out of line with the Moon's centre of gravity and the Moon's centre of rotation might have some such effect.

Admittedly the effect would be rather small, but over the periods of time such as the time it has taken for the Earth's rotation to change from 6 hours per day to 24 hours per day surely there has been some effect.  If so, am I right in thinking that the Moon's orbit has quickened over time?  If so, I hope the Moon has stayed in equillibrium by adjusting its altitude (is that the right word?) and isn't thinking of leaving us to it once it has built up an escape velocity...

Respected !

What if we lived on moon ? And also We have nature and water and environment like earth on moon ?

If the Moon lost orbit somehow for whatever reason, how would the timeline of the crash look like.

I'm thinking of these ingredients:

- slowly dropping free fall

- at some point it will enter atmosphere, what happens to the Moon?

- tidal waves, will the Moon break up and would cities be flooded during downfall

- say the Moon crashed into solid land, wat kind of crater would it leave, what would it do the the immediate surrounds (shockwave?)

- what happens to the atmosphere if anything at all, and what about the magnetic field?

- will humanity survive or perish, and by what cause?

How can a body so far away from earth be so influential?

What is really meant by 'the moon controls the tides'?