There will be a penumbral lunar eclipse this weekend on February 10 or 11 depending on which part of the world you live in.
For studying eclipses, we used to recommend a site called ‘HeyWhatsThat’ but it used the Google Earth API/plugin, which was discontinued last month. Another site by Xavier M. Jubier that offers KMZ files relating to eclipses appears to be no longer being maintained and it does not include a KMZ for this weekend’s lunar eclipse.
[ Update 2017-02-10: We were incorrect and Xavier’s website is being maintained. See his message in the comments below including a link to a map and a way to get a KMZ version. ]
The eclipse will be visible from much parts of the world. Image from Wikimedia.
If any of our readers knows of a site that offers eclipse details that can be viewed with Google Earth, please let us know in the comments.
The site timeanddate.com has 2D maps of the eclipse and if you enter your location it can give you exact local times for when to see it.
The community telescope organization Slooh will be broadcasting the eclipse live on their site. As far as we can tell it will be publicly available without having to become a member.
Coinciding with the eclipse is the closest approach of green comet 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdušáková. Read more about it here.
There will also be a partial solar eclipse on February 26, visible in parts of South America and Southern Africa
About Timothy Whitehead
Timothy has been using Google Earth since 2004 when it was still called Keyhole before it was renamed Google Earth in 2005 and has been a huge fan ever since. He is a programmer working for Red Wing Aerobatx and lives in Cape Town, South Africa.
Timothy, my website is maintained. This lunar eclipse is just a penumbral one, most people can’t even tell something is happening.
You can have an interactive map of the lunar eclipse there
http://xjubier.free.fr/xLE_GM?Ecl=+20170211&Acc=2
or use my 5MCLE web tool to build a kmz file
http://xjubier.free.fr/5mcle