The western side of North America will get the best views on Saturday, April 4 before dawn. Australia and East Asia have to wait for their turn, but only until Saturday evening.
When the sun, Earth and moon form a "tin soldier line" in space, the moon slides into Earth's shadow and creates a total lunar eclipse, according to a press release. The deep shadow of the Earth covers the full lunar disk, which dims to an orange or red. Then, as the line up undoes itself, the events can be witnessed in reverse.
Western U.S. and Canada will get a good glimpse, like they did in on Oct. 8, 2014, but keep your line of sight low in the west - lower than in October. The west coast will have the best view, weather permitting. New England will miss the eclipse entirely.
The following timetable tells you what to expect in your location and what time to look up.
From Hawaii or New Zealand, the eclipse will occur during the night an high in the sky. For Australia, Japan, China and Southeast Asia, the total eclipse is expected on the evening of April 4. A solar eclipse can only be seen from a narrow angle across the Earth, but a lunar eclipse can be watched by half the world at a time.
According to the press release, you can watch the lunar eclipse with your naked eyes, but binoculars or a small telescope make the event extra enticing.
"April 4th's total eclipse is unusual in that the Moon just barely skims through Earth's inner shadow, the umbra, and then only briefly," according to the press release. "Because of this, the Moon's northeastern edge will remain much brighter than the deep red that is typically seen all across the eclipsed Moon's face."
April's lunar eclipse comes just two weeks after the solar eclipse on March 20 at the same time as the new moon and the vernal equinox. April's eclipse is also the third in a line of four lunar eclipses during 2014 and 2015 (all spaced about six months apart). The next lunar eclipse is expected on Sept. 27 for all of the Americas (excluding northwestern Canada and Alaska). "Eclipse tetrads" are not common, according to the press release. The last tetrad occurred about 10 years ago and the next one won't happen again until 2032.
