Eclipse to shroud moon in shadow

The moon will disappear into shadow before turning red tonight — and the best view of the event will be available live on ninemsn.

The lunar eclipse will begin at 1am (AEDT), putting stargazers on Australia’s east coast in the perfect position to watch as the moon falls into the earth's shadow.

For those unable to view the astronomical event with the naked eye, ninemsn and the Sydney Observatory will be live streaming the entire eclipse (weather permitting).

"It's a long, slow free show, and a spectacular one," the observatory's education officer Geoffrey Wyatt said.

"What you'll see from 11.45pm until 1.06pm is the shadow of the Earth moving across the shape of the moon.

"For 52 minutes the moon will be within the Earth's shadow, that's when it turns that rusty, coppery, blood-red colour."

From 1.06am to 1.58am the moon will be shrouded in red light refracting from the Earth's atmosphere, before returning to normal after 3am.

Aside from a spectacular view, the eclipse will also give astronomers a rare window with which to gather data on distant planets potentially capable of supporting life.

"By looking at the colour and how the light extinguishes, we can look at the mechanics of the Earth's atmosphere — then we can translate that to looking at the atmospheres of exoplanets as they pass in front of other stars," Mr Wyatt said.

"This is fundamental detective work for finding other planets out in our neighbourhood of the Milky Way."

Gathering information from lunar eclipses is nothing new, Mr Wyatt said.

"The Ancient Greeks thousands of years ago watched that and figured out that if the shadow was curved all the time, there could only be one shape of the Earth — a sphere," he said.

The moon will also look smaller during the eclipse, but this is an optical illusion caused by the dull colour.

The last lunar eclipse took place in May this year, but Australia's position meant local stargazers were largely disappointed, with astronomers in Europe, Africa and the Middle East getting the best view...see photos

The livestream will begin on ninemsn.com.au at 11.45pm.