Wednesday, October 16, 2013

"Partial Lunar Eclipse.  On Friday evening, October 18, the full moon—also known as the Hunter’s Moon—glides through the outer edge of Earth’s shadow and undergoes a penumbral eclipse. The deepest part of the eclipse is at 7:50 pm EDT (23:50 UT), when a dark grey shading will appear along the southeastern edge of the moon. The eclipse will be visible across eastern North America, South America, across Europe, and Africa on Friday night. Sky-watchers on the Asian continent get to witness the partial lunar eclipse at dawn on October 19."
"Orionid Peaks. Starting late night on Sunday, October 20 and into the pre-dawn hours of Monday, the Orionid meteor shower peaks. But even though this year’s show will be slightly hindered by a waning gibbous moon, since Orionids are known to be brighter-than-average shooting stars, even sky-watchers in the suburbs can catch some of the action. The Orionids are believed be a result of material shed from Halley’s Comet. The debris then slams into our atmosphere, creating a trickle of shooting stars. The Orionids exhibit a maximum of about 20 meteors per hour, and all of them seem to radiate from its namesake constellation, Orion the hunter, north of Orion’s bright ruddy star Betelgeuse."

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