Blood Moon to rise during total lunar eclipse tonight

Stargazers will have a chance to witness a "Blood Moon" tonight 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.

In Bangladesh, the eclipse will begin at 9:28pm with a subtle penumbral phase, reach totality between 11:30pm and 12:53am, and end by 2:55am on September 8.

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.

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