image credit: The Telegraph
A Stargazer's Triple Header: Eclipse, comet, full moon
Friday night will be quite a show: an eclipse (7:43 Eastern Time), a full moon, and a comet (10:30 pm) to light up the night sky. From the report at the Independent:
Friday night will
in fact see that comet – a green, shining light followed by a purple trail,
known as 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdušáková – joined by a bright, shining full
"snow moon" and a lunar eclipse, all at the same time.
Starting early
Friday evening, a penumbral lunar eclipse will begin. That means that the sun,
moon and earth all line up and cast a strange effect on the moon.
But the forecast in northern Ohio is
cloudy, so here is the astronomy website that all the online reports are linking to if you’d like to watch a live
stream (the eclipse and later, the comet):
And if access to the link is slow, it’s probably because the website
is overloaded. Over the weekend, I’ll update this with a YouTube link (if there
is one), or just try the link after the fact, when the traffic is lighter.
UPDATE Feb-11-17: These potentially spectacular celestial phenomena may have been over-hyped duds. On the link posted above, one had to stick with it for a long time to see . . . not much of anything. The best shot of the elusive comet that I found was at the Bold Corsican Flame website here. If any readers found a better set of video or photos, please post in the Comments.
UPDATE Feb-11-17: These potentially spectacular celestial phenomena may have been over-hyped duds. On the link posted above, one had to stick with it for a long time to see . . . not much of anything. The best shot of the elusive comet that I found was at the Bold Corsican Flame website here. If any readers found a better set of video or photos, please post in the Comments.
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