Lunar Eclipse And Comet 45P Update: Night Sky To Provide A Heavenly Show This Weekend

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Attention stargazers! This weekend will provide a special show as it stars a full moon and comet in its night sky. This Friday night, a Lunar eclipse will start the attraction as the moon passes into the Earth's external shadow - the penumbra.

However, it will not be like the full eclipse as the moon will not be blacked out, instead only part of it will be shaded. This event will still be visible to many parts of the world.

On the other hand, Yahoo! reported that the Comet 45P will be visible on early Saturday morning. It will be a very close encounter as it passes within 7.7 million miles or 12.4 million kilometers of the planet Earth. It will have 14.2 miles per second for its relative speed.

The said comet will glow a greenish hue, while being noticeable in the constellation Hercules. Although it's a bit visible in the naked eye, telescopes and binoculars will be beneficial.

This is probably a good news as there are many stargazers who are in search of Comet 45P for the past few months. The icy small Solar System body is known to pass only every five years. The said comet is named after the Japanese, Czech and Slovak astronomers - Minoru Honda, Antonín Mrkos, and Ľudmila Pajdušáková. -who have found it in 1948. Therefore, it is officially known as Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova, aside from Comet 45P.
The letter P from 45P means "periodic" which means that it is a reoccurring visitor to the internal solar system. EarthSky reported that it will fade until it moves through constellations Corona Borealis, Boötes, Canes Venatici, Ursa Major into Leo by the end of this month.

The eclipse is expected to last for over four hours, starting from 5:32 p.m. EST. Meanwhile, it will be seen earlier on Saturday morning in Africa, Europe, and western Asia. For those who wishes to see it in action, Slooh network of observatories will produce a live broadcast in the Canary islands for the two sky's big events.