A total eclipse of the Moon on the morning of May 16 is the highlight for stargazers this month.
Taking place in the western sky before dawn, the early stages of the eclipse and the beginning of totality will be visible throughout the British Isles.
Eclipses such as this one take place when the Moon is in the Earth’s shadow, creating a straight line, or syzygy, between the two bodies and the Sun.
The Moon enters the Earth’s penumbral shadow at about 2.30am, and the eclipse will be easily seen by the naked eye
when it reaches the main, umbral, shadow, where the Sun’s light is blocked completely, nearly an hour later.
Totality follows an hour after that, about 45 minutes before moonset.