Cinco de Mayo Brings Supermoon and Hailey's Comet Meteor Shower

This weekend the Earth will pass through the dust of Hailey's Comet's tail, which produces the Eta Aquarid meteor shower. However, the supermoon is also this weekend, and it will likely interfere with the viewing of the meteor's during their peak.

The supermoon 2012 is the largest full moon of the year, and it is a lot of fun to see hanging so huge in the sky. You can check it out on Cinco de Mayo at 11:35 p.m. EDT. It really is too bad that two such interesting cosmic events will occur this weekend, but even so, there should be lots to look at even if the meteors don't shine through as a result of the especially large moon.

On Saturday night, the moon will be a mere 221,802 miles, which is the closest it will be this year. That is what causes this perigee moon. The moon will seem 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than the other full moons during 2012, so it will be noticeable even if you aren't really looking.

Bill Cooke of the Marshall Space Flight Center said, "Our fireball cameras have already detected four bright ones. So I would say that the odds are pretty good that folks can see a bit of Halley's Comet over the next few days, if they care to take the time to look. They will be the big and bright ones, fewer in number with a rate of just a few per hour, but they will be there."

If you do plan to view the meteor shower, just be aware of the supermoon, and be patient. It seems like you will get to see two exciting things in the night sky this weekend. There could be as many as 60 meteors per hour overnight on May 5. Will you be outside viewing on Cinco de Mayo?

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