The Moon will turn blood-red on Wednesday, 15 June when a total eclipse occurs. It may well be darker than usual because the Moon will pass through the centre of the Earth’s shadow in space.
The eclipse will not be visible at all from North America because the Moon will be below the horizon. But it will provide an unusual spectacle across the UK, Ireland and much of Europe by rising while the Full Moon is totally eclipsed.
Since this happens around sunset, when the sky is still bright, British observers will need a really clear sky to be able to see it at all.
The time to look from the UK is just after sunset and the direction is southeast. Make sure you get a horizon clear of tall buildings or trees. The Moon won’t be its usual bright silvery or yellow colour. Instead, it will be dull red – if you can see it at all, that is.
As the eclipse progresses, the Moon will be rising in the sky in western Europe and so will become easier to see. Observers in the whole of Africa and further east in India and eastern Asia will be able to see the whole eclipse because the Moon will already be higher in the sky. In western Asia, Australia and the Philippines, the lunar eclipse will be visible just before sunrise. From South America it occurs at moonrise too.
The Moon will start to enter the dark umbra of the Earth’s shadow just after 18.22 UT. It starts to leave the shadow at 21.03 UT (just after 10pm UK time) and will slowly regain its silvery illumination, with the bright part appearing as a crescent to start with. It will leave the dark umbral region at 22.03 UT but will not fully emerge from the lighter penumbral shadow until an hour after that at 23.02 UT.
Times of moonrise from the UK vary between 21.05 BST in Dover and 21.13 in London and 21.26 in Birmingham to 21.54 in Edinburgh, 2204 in Londonderry and 22.10 in Inverness where the Moon will rise just as it is emerging from totality.
The diagram, from Wikipedia, shows hey timings for the passage of the Moon through the Earth’s shadow at this eclipse. Check out Skymania’s guide to lunar eclipses here.