NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- A partial lunar eclipse is set to make for a big astronomical event early Friday morning — but you’ll need to stay up pretty late to catch it.
This partial eclipse will mean 97% of the moon will go dark over North America, and it’ll also be visible in Australia, New Zealand, eastern Asia and parts of South America.
The event begins in New York City beginning at about 1:02 a.m., but the effects are subtle until about 2:18 a.m, according to NASA.
At about 3:45 a.m., more than 95% of the moon’s disk is in the "umbra" and the moon will appear red. It’ll reach maximum eclipse at 4:02 a.m, when the peak red coloring will be visible, NASA reports.
The overall event will last over six hours, ending at 7:04 a.m.
According to NASA, this will be the longest partial lunar eclipse in 580 years, but the longest lunar eclipse of any kind happened just three years ago on July 27, 2018.
Lunar eclipses can only fall on the night of a full moon.
AccuWeather denoted that lunar eclipses can still be seen from light-polluted cities like New York, but weather will still need to cooperate. Clouds could get in the way of that in the Tri-State area.
According to NASA, a lunar eclipse occurs when the Sun, Earth, and Moon align so that the Moon passes into Earth’s shadow. In a total lunar eclipse, the entire Moon falls within the darkest part of Earth’s shadow, called the umbra.
Next year, North America is set to see two total lunar eclipses — one May-15-16, and another Nov. 7-8.