Full moon, comet and lunar eclipse are all happening tonight

Stargazers will be treated to a lunar eclipse, snow moon and New Year comet all at the same time.

A lot of the UK’s night sky is expected to be blanketed by clouds, so you might have difficulty getting the full experience.

You don’t have to be a space nerd to appreciate the rarity of this spectacle, here’s how you can witness tonight’s light show.

Lunar eclipse

Starting around 10.30pm, the sun, moon and earth will all line up.

This will cast a strange effect on the surface of the moon, known as a penumbral lunar eclipse.

Parts of the UK will have a clear view of the eclipse from 12.43am to 2.53am.

But this will be obscured by clouds the further east and south you live, according to the Met Office.

Forecaster Graham Madge said: ‘The western isles to western Scotland, Northern Ireland and the south west will be particularly clear tonight, but the rest of the UK may struggle to see the eclipse.’

Snow moon

The full moon is known as the Snow Moon because February is the snowiest month.

Native Americans also refer to it as the Hunger Moon – due to the struggle of some tribes to find food this time of year.

It’s due to rise at 4.44pm this evening and will set at 7.30am on Saturday.

The clouds will be thickest from 3am to 6am Saturday morning, so you should still have a few windows of opportunity to see it.

New Year comet

Comet 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdušáková has actually been tracked for the last several weeks, if you have a telescope handy.

But it will be visible to the naked eye after midnight where it will be closest to Earth.

It will pass by at a distance of 7.4 million miles – that’s 30 times further away than the moon.

The periodic comet was first spotted in 1948 and returns every five and a quarter years, and is marked out by a bright purple tail.

Source: http://metro.co.uk/2017/02/10/full-moon-comet-and-lunar-eclipse-are-all-happening-tonight-at-the-same-time-6439344/