WEEKEND COMET FLYBY: This weekend, Comet 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova will fly by Earth only 7.4 million miles away--the 8th-closest comet flyby of the Space Age. The small comet is invisible to the naked eye, but its emerald-green atmosphere can be seen in small telescopes. Monitor the photo gallery for sightings. Sky maps: Feb. 10, 11, 12.
HOW WILL TONIGHT'S LUNAR ECLIPSE LOOK? There's a lunar eclipse tonight, Feb. 10th, when the Moon spends almost 4 hours skimming through the shadow of Earth. If you've seen a lunar eclipse before, you might be expecting the Moon to turn red--the color of our planet's inner shadow. But no. The eclipsed Moon will look more like this:
Matt Wastell of Brisbane, Australia, took this picture during a similar lunar eclipse in April 2005. Earth's shadow darkens the upper left quadrant of the Moon, producing a gradient of luminosity across the lunar disk. Overall, the Moon remains silvery gray.
Tonight's eclipse is "penumbral." In other words, the Moon will pass through the pale outskirts of our planet's shadow (the penumbra) rather than directly through its red core (the umbra). Graphic artist Larry Koehn has created an excellent animation of the event.
The best time to look is Friday night around 07:44 p.m. Eastern Time (00:44 UT Saturday). That's the time of maximum coverage when Earth's shadow creates a clear gradient of light and shadow across the lunar disk. Check out this global visibility map to see if you are in the eclipse zone:
According to folklore, a full Moon in February is called the "Snow Moon." For northerners, it often feels like the brightest Moon of the year as moonlight glistens off the white landscape. For a while on Friday night, the Snow Moon won't seem quite so bright.
Realtime Lunar Eclipse Photo Gallery
FUNNEL CLOUD: Note to photographers: When you see a funnel cloud reaching down out of a stormy sky, the correct response is usually Run! Brazilian photographer Helio C. Vital made a different choice. Click! He snapped this picture on Feb. 7th from Rio de Janeiro:
"The cloud appeared about a half hour before sunset," says Vital. "It was part of a thunderstorm cell that was approaching, announcing the arrival of a new weather system that would bring rain to the city several hours later."
Meteorologists call this type of cloud a "tuba" -- a swirling mass of moist air that can hang down from an active thunderstorm. A tuba that touches the ground gets a new name: tornado. "Fortunately, in spite of its threatening appearance, this tuba did not reach the ground and no damage was reported," says Vital.
Click! was the correct choice after all.
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery