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Unlike a solar eclipse, viewers will not need any eye protection equipment to watch the display uncommon.
"All you have to do is … go outside!", Said the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) in London, adding that binoculars will be useful for observing the phenomenon.
For about half of the world, the moon will be partly or entirely in the shadow of the Earth from 17:14 to 23:28 GMT – six hours and 14 minutes in all.
The complete eclipse period – known as the "totality", when the moon appears the darkest – will last from 1930 to 2113 GMT.
At the same time, Mars will hover near the moon in the night sky, easily visible to the naked eye.
Southern Hemisphere amateur astronomers will be in the best position to enjoy this show, especially in Southern Africa, Australia, India and Madagascar, but also in Europe and South America.
Next to Lake Magadi, 100 kilometers southwest of the Kenyan capital Nairobi, husband and wife Susan Murabana and Chu Owen set up their high-powered telescope for the local community to attend the event. ;event.
The isolated lake is far from urban light pollution, making it the perfect place to observe the planet.
"Mars, Pluto, Saturn, Jupiter, Venus – Mercury, that's what I really wanted to see," said Owen, 39, while he was using the Sky Map app on his phone portable to locate planets. "These are the planets that I'm really excited to see."
The website www.timeanddate.com also offers the exact locations and timing of the eclipse as it moves from Friday to Saturday.
Our neighboring planet will appear unusually large and bright, just 57.7 million kilometers (35.9 million miles) from Earth in its elliptical orbit around the sun.
"We have a rare and interesting conjunction of phenomena," Pascal Descamps, an astronomer at the Paris Observatory, told AFP.
"We should have a copper-red hue on the moon with Mars '' Red Planet '' just next, very bright and with a slight orange hue itself."
A total lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth takes a position in a straight line between the moon and the sun, erasing the direct sunlight that normally makes our satellite bright yellow-yellow.
The moon moves to a similar position every month, but the tilt of its orbit means that it normally goes above or below the Earth's shadow – so most months we have a full moon without eclipse.
When the three celestial bodies are perfectly aligned, however, the Earth's atmosphere diffuses blue light from the sun while refracting or bending the red light on the moon, usually giving it a pink blush.
This is what gives the phenomenon the name of "blood moon", although Mark Bailey of the Armagh Observatory in Northern Ireland has said that the color can vary widely.
It depends in part "on the transparency or transparency of those parts of the earth's atmosphere that allow sunlight to reach the moon," he said at the time. 39; AFP.
"During a very dark eclipse, the moon can be almost invisible.
"Less dark eclipses can show the moon in dark gray or brown … in rust, in brick or, if they are very bright, in red or orange copper."
The long duration of this eclipse is partly due to the fact that the moon will make a nearly central pbad through the shadow of the Earth – the darkest and most central part of the shadow.
Our constant companion will also be at the furthest point of Earth's orbit, making its movement across the sky slower from our point of view, thus spending more time in the dark.
NASA, meanwhile, has denounced social media hoaxes claiming that Mars will appear as big as the moon during the eclipse.
"If it were true, we would be in great trouble given the gravitational effects on Earth, Mars and our moon!" the states of the NASA website.
Mars will most likely appear as a very bright star.
"In the midst of a lunar eclipse, it may seem like a red planet has chosen home near Earth – they are both mysterious and beautiful," said Robert Mbadey of the SAR.
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