A total lunar eclipse will coincide with a supermoon tonight and Australia will be in a prime position to watch the whole spectacle unfold.

A lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth passes between the sun and the moon, causing the moon to be either partially or fully covered by Earth's shadow.

When Earth's shadow covers the entire face of the moon, this is called a total lunar eclipse.

The moon usually turns a shade of red during a total lunar eclipse, which is why they are also called blood moons. This happens because:

• Earth's atmosphere bends some of the sun's light towards the moon during a total lunar eclipse.
• This light indirectly illuminates the moon's surface.
• Our planet's atmosphere also filters out some of the colours at shorter wavelengths, like blue and green.
• This leaves colours with longer wavelengths, such as red and orange, to pass through our planet's atmosphere and continue on towards the moon.

Tonight's eclipse will take place at the same time as a supermoon. This is an unofficial name that simply refers to a full or new moon that occurs when the moon is near its closes point to earth in its elliptical orbit. You can read a bit more about that here.

Here are the times that you can see tonight's lunar eclipse across Australia.

The moon will be partially covered by Earth's shadow during the partial eclipse and then turn red when it's fully covered during the total eclipse. The total eclipse will last for about 14 minutes.

Of course, this whole spectacle is dependent on having a clear sky over your part of Australia tonight.

The image below is a computer model's prediction of where clouds are expected to be located around the time of the total eclipse tonight.

Image: Modelled cloud cover at 10pm AEST on Wednesday, May 26, according to the ECMWF-HRES model.

This gives us a general idea of the expected cloud cover across Australia. However, it's worth pointing out that some of this cloud will be thin high clouds that shouldn't ruin the show. There may also be some big gaps in the clouds that still offer a decent glimpse of the blood moon.

Sydney, Canberra and Darwin should have an good view of the moon tonight and there should also be enough clear sky to see the event in Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth. Clouds should be a bit thicker in Hobart and Adelaide, although there could still be enough clear air to see the moon.

If you see the eclipse, we would love to see a photo. Share your images with us in our Weatherzone Weather Photography group on Facebook or by tagging #Weatherzone on Instagram.