How to watch the last lunar eclipse of the year

A sequence of images taken approximately every twenty minutes show the moon passing through the shadow of the earth as photographed in Toronto Wednesday Feb. 20, 2008. A total lunar eclipse, can only occur on a full moon, when the moon passes through the umbral shadow of the earth. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

The last total lunar eclipse of the year will be visible across Canada early Tuesday morning.

Called the "beaver blood moon," it will be the last total eclipse until March 2025, according to the University of Guelph’s Jason Thomas, better known by his stage name, “The Great Orbax.”

The phrase "blood moon" refers to the eerie red light that the moon is bathed in during a lunar eclipse.

There will only be two penumbral eclipses (when only the rim of the moon is visible) and two partial eclipses (when the moon passes through the centre of Earth's shadow) in North America between now and then.

The moon's orbit around Earth is not a perfect circle, as seen by the relatively infrequent lunar eclipses.

“Instead, the moon kind of spirals around the Earth and that’s why a lunar eclipse only occurs when the orbit lines up in an exact way such that the Earth’s shadow blocks the sun’s light from reflecting on the full moon,” Orbax, who is also the co-founder of Royal City Science, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to STEM education, said in a release.

“The orbits only align in such a way to create a full eclipse every few years.”

On Tuesday, the eclipse will start at around 3 a.m. EST, with the entire eclipse occurring from 5:17 to 6:42 a.m EST.

Lunar eclipses, in contrast to solar eclipses, are safe to view with the naked eye and don't require any fancy gear, but Orbax advises leaving the city to avoid light pollution.

“If you want to get some extra definition while viewing, a pair of binoculars or a small telescope would help,” he said.