The longest total lunar eclipse of the century can be seen in Singapore this Saturday, July 28.

What is a lunar eclipse?

A lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth passes right between the sun and the moon. The Earth's shadow falls on the moon.

Total lunar eclipses are also sometimes called blood moons because the moon takes on a reddish-orange glow during the lunar event.

It will look something like this:

Early morning of July 28

There are seven stages to the lunar eclipse, which will start from 1:14am at the start of July 28.

These are the precise timings:

The total eclipse will start at 3:30am and end at 5:13am, and will be visible from everywhere on the "night" side of the Earth (i.e. anyone for whom it happens to be night time when it takes place), provided the sky is clear.

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What's special about this lunar eclipse?

To be honest, the previous lunar eclipse we saw in January was probably more special.

The rare astronomical event involved a supermoon (full moon that is nearer to Earth), blue moon (second full moon in a month) and blood moon (lunar eclipse) all occurring at the same time.

So what's so special about this one? Basically that it will just be the longest total lunar eclipse of the century.

Compared to the January 2018 eclipse that lasted only one hour and 16 minutes, this one will last one hour and 43 minutes.

Worth staying up for? You can decide.

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Top photo via Wikipedia