A Guide To Friday's Comet-Eclipse-Full-Moon Triple Feature (cnet.com)

SonicSpike quotes a report from CNET: Even if you aren't a space nerd whose idea of a good time is craning your neck to stare into the vast nothingness of space on a frigid evening, this Friday the heavens will put on a show worth heading outdoors for. A penumbral lunar eclipse, a full "snow moon" and a comet will be spicing up the night sky February 10 in a rare convergence of such celestial happenings. We'll start with our nearest neighbor. February brings the full moon known as the "snow moon" because this month in North America tends to see a lot of the white fluffy stuff. This snow moon will be special though because, well... we'll all get in its way in a sense when the penumbral lunar eclipse takes place Friday. The eclipse will be at least partly visible from most but not all places on Earth (sorry Australia and Japan). The moment of greatest eclipse is at 4:43 p.m. PT and the eclipse will then dissipate until it completes a little over two hours later, according to the U.S. Naval Observatory. Next up, Comet 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova has actually been visible with binoculars and telescopes for several weeks already, but it will be at its closest approach to Earth on the morning of February 11 as it passes by at a distance of 7.4 million miles (11.9 million kilometers) or 30 times further away than the moon.

Comments

A lunar eclipse at full moon...

[ControlFreal]

... that is a given. The comet is a nice addition though.

Re:A lunar eclipse at full moon...

[AthanasiusKircher]

A lunar eclipse at full moon is a given ??? Are you crazy? No, its not!

I think you misunderstood GP, which admittedly was a bit poorly worded. I'm pretty sure GP meant that IF a lunar eclipse is happening, it IS a full moon. So two of the "triple features" mentioned in the summary are bound to be together anyway... all the nonsense about the "snow moon" notwithstanding. (What is the sudden obsession with old moon names in the past year or two? Very few people used these terms anymore outside of the Farmer's Almanac for years, and suddenly they're all over the news... and people keep acting like they're significant -- "Ooooh a 'SNOW moon'... ooooh a 'HARVEST moon'..." -- these happen every single year and mean nothing other than what month it is.)

The fact that the summary doesn't acknowledge that full moons are just normal at lunar eclipses makes it sound silly at best, ignorant of basic astronomy at worst. Terms like "rare convergence" make it even worse. And lunar eclipses aren't exactly "rare" events to begin with, although there are some unusual features of this penumbral one... but the fact that it's penumbral will actually make it less interesting to look at to the average observer.

Is it just me, or has there been an increase in hyperbolic astronomy stories recently? There was all the "supermoon" nonsense last year -- again, mildly interesting for astronomy nerds, but not so impressive for the average Joe who barely looks up at the sky. (The moon really wasn't THAT much bigger.) Now we're billing a "triple feature" for a lackluster lunar eclipse coupled with a full moon (which would be there anyway if an eclipse is happening), and a comet that you need binoculars to see.

I'm all for getting people to look at the sky and to get interested in astronomy, but if you overbill the significance of such things, I don't think it helps.

Penumbral eclipse i.e. not noticeable, dim comet

[Ecuador]

Note that this is a penumbral eclipse, which basically means it is barely noticeable - the moon will very slightly reduce in brightness. For example, when we show full lunar eclipses in a time-lapse e.g. this nice one from 2015, we start from the end of the penumbral phase, when the umbra actually touches the disk, since the penumbral part is not discernible.

As for the comet, it is past its "prime", as it is quickly moving away from the Sun. Unlike the rest of the celestial objects, for a comet the best time to observe them is when they are closest to the Sun, since that is when they are at their brightest and bear the longest "tail" - of course you also need a combination with some proximity to the earth, but for this comet the best time was a month ago when it was near the Sun at magnitude 6 (7 times brighter than currently). Yeah, once again /. is a bit late at reporting ;) If you still want to catch it though, do it fast, it is quickly fading.