A blood-red orb will hang for nearly an hour in the skies over parts of central and eastern Canada on Thursday night as the planets align for a full lunar eclipse, the likes of which haven’t been visible here in more than three years.  
 At its peak Thursday night between 11:14 p.m. and 12:07 a.m. EDT, the eclipse will be most visible in the southeastern skies over central and eastern Canada. Sky watchers across most of the Americas, Europe and Africa should also be able to see some of it.

 
 The celestial show begins about an hour earlier as the eastern portion of the full moon begins to fall into shadow. During a lunar eclipse, the planets are aligned in a row so that Earth casts its distinctive reddish shadow on the full moon, blocking the sunlight that otherwise reflects off its surface. The shadow is red because of the way light travels through Earth’s atmosphere.  
 Stargazers in the western part of the country won’t catch all of the eclipse because the moon will not yet have risen there by the time it begins. In Vancouver, the rising moon will already be in full eclipse, making it a less distinct presence in the evening sky.