Penumbral Lunar Eclipse, Super Bright Jupiter Make for a Spectacular Skywatching Week, When to Watch?
This week has lots of gifts in store for skywatchers and scientists. Some amazing play of planets and celestial objects will be visible in the sky starting off from Tuesday.
On Wednesday, a penumbral eclipse will take place at 7:48am ET (6:48am CT, 10:48pm AEST). The subtle eclipse of the Moon is going to be remarkable since it is a full moon night. The faint eclipse will see the moon pass through the Earth's shadow, with only 22% of its body getting under the canopy of the shadow.
The effect will be quite subtle but if you are a highly interested observer with high resolution telescopes for company and clear skies, you will be able to get a good glimpse of the event. And side by side, you will also see an unusually shining Jupiter that will look like a big and bright star, next to the partially lit Moon, according to reports.
People in central and western parts of the United States are best located to see the shadowed Moon, whereas parts of eastern Australia, New Zealand, Japan, central and East Asia and Pacific will have to content themselves with only a faint view. But they can catch the event in the evening of Wednesday, with the darkest phase occurring at 11:47 UT.
Earlier in the week, on Monday, the Moon and Jupiter will have risen together in the night sky, appearing quite close-only two degrees apart from each other. The coming Thursday will offer another unique sight as the nearly full moon and the bright blue star Spica will rise in the east and travel high in the south till dawn.
According to National Geography, Spica is the lead member of the constellation Virgo and will be joined by star Arcturus and planet Jupiter during the event. To make things more dramatic, Comet Ikeya-Murakami (P/2010 V1) will also pass through the radiant constellation Leo, near the charming spiral galaxy NGC 2903 (one of the brightest galaxies in the universe).
