What will happen when Europe’s SMART-1 lunar orbiter pile drives itself into the Moon this weekend? Nobody knows for sure.

Amateur and professional astronomers are going to cast an instrumented eye on the Moon late Saturday night into Sunday morning.

At present, the favored prediction is that SMART-1 spacecraft will impact the Moon’s surface Sunday morning at 1:41 a.m. ET. However, it might hit roughly 5 hours earlier on its planned next-to-last orbit.

Many think the chances of seeing something are dim. But they quickly point out the surprising outcome when Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 fragments punched the face of Jupiter back in 1994. So nobody wants to be caught with their lenses and mirrors down.

There are those who expect to see the SMART-1 impact as a flash on the dark side of the Moon’s terminator, even debris tossed into the sunlight. The bigger the scope the better observe some experts.

Will it be a flash or flash in the pan episode? Inquiring eyes want to know!