Total lunar eclipse will turn the moon blood red on Tuesday for skywatchers on several continents

By AFP

A blood-red moon will soon grace the skies for a total lunar eclipse. Skywatchers will be able to see the spectacle on Tuesday morning in several continents. Sadly people in Africa and Europe won’t be able to enjoy the celestial show, but many others are in for a visual feast.

On Tuesday morning people in North America, Central America and the western part of South America will be treated to a total lunar eclipse.

Australia and eastern Asia can catch it on Tuesday night.

Partial stages of the eclipse with small bites taken out of the moon will be visible from Central Asia and much of South America. Africa and Europe will be shut out.

Solar and lunar eclipses happen due to a precise alignment of the sun, moon and Earth. There are between four and seven a year, according to NASA.

The eclipses tend to follow each other, taking advantage of the sweet spot in the celestial bodies’ orbits. Tuesday’s total eclipse of the moon comes two weeks after a ‘ring of fire’ solar eclipse that dazzled people and penguins in Antarctica.

During a total lunar eclipse, the Earth is between the sun and full moon, casting a shadow that covers the moon.

The so-called blood moon looks red because of stray bits of sunlight filtering through Earth’s atmosphere.

“The moon isn’t actually getting any light from the sun because the Earth is right between it blocking that direct light,” says Dhara Patel, a space expert at the National Space Centre in the UK.

“But because the Earth has an atmosphere, what happens is sunlight sort of gets bent or refracted by the atmosphere of the Earth. A little bit like our glasses that we wear helps to redirect and focus our vision to help us see clearly. And because red light actually gets directed or redirected by just the right amount, that red light just gets projected onto the moon.”

The show unfolds over several hours, with totality lasting about an hour.

For those in the path, there’s no need for any special equipment to observe — just a clear, cloudless view of the sky.

“The best thing you can do is go out, use your eyes, and just, you know, throughout the night, whenever you wanna go, go and have a look for it,” says Patel.

“There’ll obviously be a point in time where that lunar eclipse is at maximum, and that’s when it will appear its reddest, but you’ll be able to spot the full moon throughout the night.”

Use a forecasting app or any online celestial calendar to look up the exact timing for your area. Venture outside a few times to see Earth’s shadow darken the moon, eventually revealing the reddish-orange orb.

There’s a partial lunar eclipse on the docket for August, visible across the Americas, Europe, Africa and west Asia.