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How to watch tonight’s total lunar eclipse

Most of North America and South America are in for a treat in the hours after midnight tonight, as the full moon passes directly through Earth's shadow, producing the first total lunar eclipse seen there since 2011.

The eclipse starts just before 1 a.m. Eastern Time, Tuesday morning, but to see the good part, be sure to be watching starting from just before 2 a.m until after 5:30 a.m., since that's when the moon will pass through the Earth's umbra — the darkest part of its shadow. The point when it reaches 'totality' is around 3:46 a.m. ET. For the image above, which shows the stages in Universal Time, subtract four hours for Eastern Time, three for Atlantic Time, five for Central time, etc.

[ Related: Rare ‘tetrad’ of total lunar eclipses begins next week, does not spell the end of the world ]

You don't need any special equipment to see the eclipse, and unlike for a solar eclipse, it's perfectly fine to watch a lunar eclipse without eye protection. However, for places where the view is going to be spoiled by the weather, such as for anyone in Ontario and Quebec, some extra help is needed to see this one. Fortunately, NASA has us covered, as they'll be broadcasting a free webcast of the eclipse, along with commentary, starting at 1 a.m. ET. So, if you're good for staying up all night, click here to stream the webcast live.

In the mean time, this handy NASA video shows how and why lunar eclipses happen:

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Lunar eclipses aren't very unusual, as they happen about two or three times every year, but this particular eclipse is part of a 'tetrad' of total lunar eclipses over the next 18 months. A tetrad is specifically when four total lunar eclipses occur in a row, and the times when these occur are a little scattered. Some centuries can have several of them (somewhere between 16 and 19), while other centuries can see none, and there can be 'dry spells' two to three centuries long at times.

Some have tried to assign prophetic meaning to these eclipses, but the only thing truly 'threatened' by this one is NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Although the agency is confident that the solar-powered lunar satellite will be about to tough it out, it really isn't designed to go through a 4-hour-long period of darkness. Therefore, it's possible the spacecraft's propulsion system may freeze up. However, even if that happens, the mission is nearing its end now anyway, and NASA plans on slamming the probe into the moon sometime later this month, to gather one last batch of science data before the end.

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