A total lunar eclipse will be visible from Australia on Tuesday night as Earth’s shadow turns the moon red.

A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon, Earth and Sun form a line, causing the Moon to pass through Earth’s shadow.

During a total lunar eclipse, the moon first passes into the outer part of Earth’s shadow, called the penumbra, before moving into the darkest part of it shadow, which is called the umbra.

You might expect the Moon to briefly disappear as it moves through the umbra and becomes completely covered by Earth’s shadow. Instead, the Moon takes on a reddish-orange glow inside the umbra, which is why a total lunar eclipse is sometimes called a ‘Blood Moon’.

The Moon turns red during a lunar eclipse because light gets reflected and refracted by Earth’s atmosphere. This process causes shorter wavelengths of sunlight (blue, green etc.) to get scattered and filtered out, while longer wavelengths of light (red and orange) get redirected towards the surface of the Moon.

This week’s lunar eclipse will be visible across Australia on Tuesday night, with totality lasing a bit more than one hour for most of the country. Below are the times that the eclipse will be visible in each capital city, clear skies permitting.

If you miss Tuesday night’s total lunar eclipse, you will have to wait until 2025 to catch a glimpse of the next Blood Moon.