Friday night eclipse, full moon, comet, Stargazer’s Alert!

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):

http://live.slooh.com/stadium/live/the-full-snow-moon-eclipse

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. 

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Lunar eclipse tonight

From the NASA website:

For the first time in more than 30 years, you can witness a supermoon in combination with a lunar eclipse. Late on Sept. 27, 2015, in the U.S. and much of the world, a total lunar eclipse will mask the moon’s larger-than-life face.

Unfortunately for Cleveland Tea Party Patriots, local cloud cover will likely make it difficult to see, much less photograph the blood moon. Fortunately, you can watch the live stream of the event at NASA’s website here from 8pm to 11:30. Probably the best part will start around 10:10, when the eclipse begins. 

UPDATE: 9/28: I had trouble with the links above; they were probably sluggish with heavy traffic, and the NASA stream kept interrupting with interviews. Morning after - here are great photos, as is usually the case at the UK Daily Mail here. 

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