Weekend To Bring Comet & 'Snow Moon' Eclipse, But Eagle Eye Needed

By Chris Spears

DENVER (CBS4) - A few cool things will happen in the sky this weekend, but you'll need a lot of patience and some good tools to see either one.

First up is a penumbral lunar eclipse of the Full Snow Moon on Friday evening starting at 3:34 p.m., peaking at 5:43 p.m., and ending at 7:53 p.m. in the mountain time zone. Moonrise in Denver will be right around 5:30 p.m. Friday.

However, according to timeanddate.com this will be a tough eclipse to see because Earth's main shadow will not cover the moon. But if you look really close you might see the faint, outer part of Earth's shadow pass over the moon.

Then early Saturday morning Comet 45P will pass about 7.4 million miles from Earth, but it won't be visible with the naked eye. You'll need an extremely dark sky and at least binoculars, but probably a telescope, to see it.

It'll be visible in the morning sky in the constellation Hercules and your best chance to see it will be around 2 a.m. mountain time.

Meteorologist Chris Spears writes about stories related to weather and climate in Colorado. Check out his bio, connect with him on Facebook or follow him on Twitter @ChrisCBS4.