Hey stargazers, you’re in luck this weekend! Get out your telescopes, because a couple pretty awesome things will be happening that will be visible from most places across Canada and the US.
Tonight, the full moon will dip briefly into Earth’s shadow, creating a partial lunar eclipse. Those watching in Africa, Europe, western Asia and the eastern parts of North & South America will get the chance to see this relatively rare phenomenon: a tiny bit of the southern portion of the moon will pass into Earth’s penumbra (the planet’s outer shadow). It’ll be subtle, but the moon will be partially in shadow for about four hours total. The time of the deepest eclipse (and when it’s the most visible to the naked eye or camera) will be at 7:50pm EDT. At that exact moment, the Earth’s outer shadow will cover 76.5% of the lunar disk!
If you can’t get outside or the view is too hazy and cloudy where you are, thanks to the wonders of technology you can check out the whole thing online – the Slooh Space Camera will air a live broadcast of the four-hour process starting at 2:45pm EDT on http://events.slooh.com/. The eclipse will also show up better on cameras, so if you have a fancy telephoto lens or know someone who does, break it out and see it that way!
Then on Sunday, untilthe 22nd, the Orionids meteor shower (meteors that are remnants from Halley’s Comet) will be taking to the skies – although it will be very dimmed because of the full Hunter’s moon on Friday. These meteors actually have an average speed of 238,000 kilometres per hour before they hit Earth’s upper atmosphere! The best time to see the shower will be from around 1am or 2am local time until dawn. At its peak, it’ll produce around 15 to 20 meteors per hour. It may be difficult to see, but it’s worth a look anyway!