Log In


Reset Password

'Super moon,' meteor shower this weekend

There are two celestial events worth mentioning this weekend.

The full moon of Saturday night into Sunday is a perigee moon, as much as 14 larger and 30 percent brighter than other full moons of 2012.On Saturday at 11:34 p.m., the moon reaches perigee. Only one minute later, the moon will line up with earth and the sun to become brilliantly full.Also, spaceweather.com reports earth is entering a stream of debris from Halley's Comet, source of the annual eta Aquarid meteor shower.The shower peaks this weekend; the best time to look is during the hours before sunrise on Sunday.Because the shower's radiant is located below the celestial equator, southern hemisphere observers are favored, but even northerners should be able to see a few flecks of Halley-dust disintegrating in the atmosphere. Super-bright moonlight will cap the meteor rate at about 30 per hour.