DISAPPOINTING COMET FLYBY: This weekend, Comet 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova is flying past Earth only 7.4 million miles away--the 8th-closest comet flyby of the Space Age. Unfortunately, the comet is invisible to the naked eye and even observers with telescopes are having trouble seeing it. After losing many of its volatile gases when it flew past the sun in December, the depleted comet is much dimmer than forecasters expected: photo gallery. Sky maps: Feb. 11, 12.
SNOW MOON PASSES THROUGH EARTH'S SHADOW: According to folklore, this weekend's full Moon is called the "Snow Moon." For northerners, it often feels like the brightest Moon of the year as moonlight glistens off the white February landscape. For a while on Friday night, the Snow Moon lost some of its luster when it passed, off center, through the shadow of our planet. Tom Bailey photographed the event from Urbandale, Iowa:
Note the darkening in the upper left quadrant of the lunar disk. That's our planet's shadow. When the Moon skims the edge of Earth's shadow as it did on Friday night, astronomers call it a "penumbral lunar eclipse." In this case, it was a double eclipse: "As I was shooting the eclipse, a jet passed between my location and the Moon," says Bailey.
Observers on every continent except Australia witnessed the shadow. Browse the gallery for more sightings.
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