TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan will witness a total lunar eclipse on the evening of the Lantern Festival on March 3, with the next full total lunar eclipse not visible for more than two years, the Central Weather Administration said Tuesday.

The Lantern Festival marks the first full moon after the Lunar New Year, but at sunset and moonrise only half of the moon will initially be visible in the night sky, per CNA. The CWA said a total lunar eclipse will take place that evening, enabling the public to enjoy the special scene of a “red moon accompanying lanterns.”

The CWA said that, weather permitting, from around 5:50 p.m. Taiwan time, when the moon rises in the east, people across Taiwan will be able to observe the eclipse already in progress. The most spectacular phase, totality, will occur from 7:04 p.m. to 8:03 p.m., when the moon will appear as a dark red full moon.

According to the CWA, the entire lunar eclipse will last 4 hours and 35 minutes. The event will begin with the penumbral eclipse at 4:43 p.m., followed by a partial eclipse at 5:50 p.m.

Totality begins at 7:04 p.m., maximum eclipse at 7:34 p.m., and totality ends at 8:03 p.m. This will be followed by another partial eclipse ending at 9:18 p.m., and a penumbral eclipse concluding at 10:25 p.m.

However, because the moon will not yet have risen in Taiwan at the start of the penumbral phase, that stage will not be visible locally.

The CWA explained that a lunar eclipse occurs when the moon passes into Earth’s shadow, blocking sunlight that normally illuminates its surface. As a result, the moon appears partially obscured or darkened.

During totality, the moon is completely within Earth’s umbra, but it does not disappear entirely. Instead, it takes on a dim coppery red hue because some red wavelengths of sunlight are refracted through Earth’s atmosphere onto the moon’s surface, giving rise to the term “blood moon.”

Between 2001 and 2100, there will have been 228 lunar eclipses worldwide, including 86 total lunar eclipses, 57 partial lunar eclipses, and 85 penumbral lunar eclipses. Of these, 63 total, 38 partial, and 60 penumbral lunar eclipses will be visible in Taiwan.

The CWA said the last total lunar eclipse visible in Taiwan occurred on Sept. 7 last year. The next time Taiwan will be able to observe the entire totality phase will be on Dec. 31, 2028.