'Blood Moon' to rise during total lunar eclipse Sunday night

The Moon appears red during lunar eclipses because the only sunlight reaching it is reflected and scattered through the Earth's atmosphere. [iStockphoto]

Stargazers will have a chance to see a "Blood Moon" on Sunday night during a total lunar eclipse visible across Asia and swathes of Europe and Africa.

When the Sun, Earth and Moon line up, the shadow cast by the planet on its satellite makes it appear an eerie, deep red colour that has astounded humans for millennia.

People in Asia, including India and China, will be best placed to see Sunday's total eclipse, which will also be visible on the eastern edge of Africa as well as in western Australia.

The total lunar eclipse will last from 1730 GMT to 1852 GMT.

Stargazers in Europe and Africa will get a brief chance to see a partial eclipse just as the Moon rises during the early evening, while the Americas will miss out.

The Moon appears red during lunar eclipses because the only sunlight reaching it is "reflected and scattered through the Earth's atmosphere", said Ryan Milligan, an astrophysicist at Northern Ireland's Queen's University Belfast.

Blue wavelengths of light are shorter than red ones, so are more easily dispersed as they travel through Earth's atmosphere, he told AFP.

"That's what gives the moon its red, bloody colour."

While special glasses or pinhole projectors are needed to safely observe solar eclipses, all that is required to see a lunar eclipse is clear weather -- and being in the right spot.

The last total lunar eclipse was in March this year, while the one before that was in 2022.

Milligan, a self-described "solar eclipse chaser", said he considered Sunday's event a prelude to what he called the "big one" next year.

A rare total solar eclipse, when the Moon blocks out the light from the Sun, will be visible in a sliver of Europe on August 12, 2026.

For more than a decade, Milligan has travelled the world to witness 12 totalities, which is when the Moon completely obscures the Sun.

Next year's totality -- the first in mainland Europe since 2006 -- will be visible only in Spain and Iceland, though other countries will be able to see a significant partial eclipse.

In Spain, the totality will be visible in a roughly 160-kilometre (100-mile) band between Madrid and Barcelona, but neither city will see the full phenomenon, Milligan said.

It will be the first total solar eclipse since one swept across North America in April 2024.