Lunar eclipse, meteor shower treat Canadians this weekend

Two cosmic events, a penumbrallunar eclipse Fridayand a meteor shower on Sunday, are makingfor an interesting weekend in Canadian skies.

Sunday night to dawn on Monday will be the peak of theOrionidmeteor shower.

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"In the darker hours, look towards [the constellation] Orion the hunter, generally in the southeast sky"and it will appear that meteors are coming from Orion's club, said Colin Haig, vice-president of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.

The meteor shower will peak at 10 to 20 meteors per hour just before dawn on Monday, according to Earthsky.org. Unfortunately, the brightness of the full moon will make the meteors difficult to see for most Canadians.

Penumbrallunar eclipse

Though the moon will detract somewhat from that cosmic show, it provided one of its own earlier this weekend.

Just before 8 p.m. ET Friday, the bottom half of the full moon wasdarkened by the Earth's shadow during the penumbrallunar eclipse.

The Earth's shadow has two distinct regions:A very dark, central region called the umbra, and a diffuse outer region called the penumbra.

The penumbra caused the moon to get dimmer Friday nightuntil about two-thirds of the moon wascloaked in shadow at 8:50 p.m. People in Eastern Canada could seethe entire event, weather permitting, but it waswell underway at moonrise for those inCentral and Western Canada. Thepenumbraleclipse wassubtle but still noticeable to anyone who stoppedto take a look.

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Even subtle eclipses can "help people understand that our solar system is in motion," Haig said. "Its a fairly rare event, a couple times a year at best and it happens in a matter of a few hours."