Skywatchers eagerly awaiting Saturday’s total lunar eclipse say that the spectacle could be the “best in years”.
The eclipse begins at 2018 GMT, with the Moon totally immersed in the shadow of the Earth between 2244 and 2358 GMT.
During “totality”, only light that has been filtered through the Earth’s atmosphere reaches the Moon’s surface, making it appear a reddish colour.
The eclipse will be visible from the whole of Europe, Africa, South America, and eastern parts of the US and Canada.
“They are beautiful events,” said Robert Massey, spokesman for the UK’s Royal Astronomical Society.
“They have a really romantic feel to them as you look up because the Moon, which is normally pearly white, takes on this reddish colour.”
He added that it was totally safe to observe and no protective filters were needed because the Moon would actually be less bright than during a normal full moon.
Read more at BBC News
 
Are you able to stay awake to witness this spectacular event? The lunar eclipse will start at 4.18 am Sunday morning and the full eclipse will be at 6.44am, Sunday (Singapore time). But I doubt you’ll be able to see one. The moon should be setting at that time in Singapore.
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Hi Yee Han
Tian1 Kou3 Shi2 Yue4. I remembered when I was young, the older folks will gather all drums, pots and pans and hit on it to create huge noise to scare away the Tian1 Kou3 from eating the moon.
I wonder you have experience this. When I was a kid, I used my index finger to point at the full moon. I got my ears infected the next day. According to my mum, it was a cut from the moon goddess for being disrepectful to her (by pointing). So I had to perform a special ritual the next night to apologize for the act. The ear infection went away the following day. Bottom-line, don’t ever try to point at a full moon. You’ll get your ears cut.
Moonlight is very important for army guys. About 13 years ago, when I was in the infantry (those were the days before they issue the terminator style night vision googles), we had to depend on moonlight to walk through the forest for one night for our dawn attack. You will see lots of men falling down whenever there is no moonlight. Those were the days. Nowadays, with the terminator night vision googles, the night is very clear.