Celestial Hat-trick

Snow moon, a comet, and lunar eclipse will appear on Friday.

21:37 07 February 2017

Some stunning astronomical events are expected to occur at the end of the week. On Friday, a lunar eclipse is forecast to appear on a snow moon that will cast a shadow across the lunar surface. After a couple of hours, Comet 45P would make its closest approach to the Earth.

 

An eclipse of the moon takes place when the moon, Earth, and sun line up, with Earth in the middle. This causes the Earth’s shadow to fall on the moon, creating a lunar eclipse.

 

In North, Central and South Africa the event will be seen from the east while in Europe, Africa and western Asia the best views would be on the southern sky.

 

For viewers in the UK, the shadow will first cast over the moon at 22:34 GMT, and will end at 02:53 GMT.

And for those in New York, the event will begin at 17:34 ET, and end at 21:53 ET.

 

In a blog on its website, Nasa said: 'Comet 45P, visible after sunset over the last two months - through both binoculars and telescopes - makes its closest approach to Earth on February 11, when it will be 0.08 Astronomical Units (7.4 million miles) from Earth. 

 

'It'll be visible in the morning sky in the constellation Hercules.