A total lunar eclipse visible from North and South America, Europe, Africa and western Asia takes place on the night of September 27 / 28, 2015. If you have clear skies be sure you pop outside to view last eclipse of the year and also the last total lunar eclipse visible anywhere until 2018.

A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes within the Earth's shadow or umbra resulting in a darkening or reddening of its appearance. The Moon doesn't usually completely vanish due to scattering of sunlight by the Earth's atmosphere. Compared to a solar eclipse with its totality period of just a few minutes, a lunar eclipse is a much longer relaxed event. For this eclipse, first to last contact spans 5 hours 10 minutes with the Umbral phase taking 3 hours 20 minutes and actual totality lasting 1 hour 12 minutes. From Western Europe, eastern half of North America, South America and Northwest Africa the eclipse will be visible in its entirety.

For those living on the western side of the USA the partial stage of eclipse will already be underway as the Moon rises in the east. On the other hand from the Middle East, eastern Africa and western Asia, the Moon sets in the west before the eclipse has completed. For American observers the eclipse takes place on the evening of September 27th and for those in Europe, Africa, middle East and western Asia it happens during the early hours of September 28th.

The partial phase of the eclipse begins at 01:07 UT (02:07 BST, 03:07 CEST, 21:07 EDT) with totality beginning at 02:11UT (03:11 BST, 04:11 CEST, 22:11 EDT). Totality ends at 03:23UT (04:23 BST, 05:23 CEST, 23:23 EDT) with the partial phase ending at 04:27UT (05:27 BST, 06:27 CEST, 00:27 EDT).

Unlike a total eclipse, which can only be seen from a very narrow band across the Earth, a lunar eclipse can be seen from any place where the Moon is above the horizon. The charts below show the visibility of the lunar eclipse of September 27th / 28th, 2015.