Rare ‘almost total’ lunar eclipse takes over the sky this week

(Gray News) – You’ll want to look to the sky this week to witness a rare astronomical event.

An “almost total” lunar eclipse will be visible in the early morning hours Friday for all of North America, according to NASA.

In this eclipse, up to 99.1% of the moon’s disk will be within the darkest part of Earth’s shadow.

Data from NASA shows this will be the longest partial eclipse in 580 years.

The eclipse is expected to start at 1:02 a.m. EDT on Nov. 19, according to NASA.

NASA says the moon should turn red at 3:45 a.m. with the peak of the eclipse hitting at 4:03 a.m. and end by 7:02 a.m.

The moon appears red during a lunar eclipse, because the only sunlight reaching the moon passes through the Earth’s atmosphere, according to NASA.

The following image provided by NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio shows the timing of the eclipse from right to left in UTC time.

Here’s a breakdown of the estimated times for the eclipse by time zones: