The founder of Astronomy Ireland has urged people to “book Wednesday off work” to see a rare eclipse of the moon.

Described as a ‘wonderful and rare spectacle of nature’ the partial eclipse of the moon will happen late on Tuesday night.

According to the Editor of Astronomy Ireland magazine, David Moore, it will be a “rare eclipse” as this Full Moon is a Supermoon meaning the moon is at its closest to earth.

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“This Full Moon is also the Harvest Moon,” said Mr Moore.

The eclipse runs for just over an hour from 3.13am to 4.16am on Wednesday morning (September 18).

“Mid eclipse is around 3.44am when a large dark 'bite' will be taken out of the Moon's top edge - this is the Earth's shadow in space crossing the lunar surface,” said Mr Moore.

"Met Eireann is forecasting mostly clear skies for the whole of Ireland so everyone should get to see this SuperMoon eclipse, a very rare event, so it is well worth staying up for and booking a day's holiday if you have work the next day" said Mr Moore.

"No equipment, just the naked eye, is needed to see the eclipse. But if you do have binoculars you will get a close up view" said Mr Moore.

This is a partial eclipse of the Moon so the Full Moon will not turn red (the so-called 'Blood Moon') that we get during a Total Eclipse of the Moon.

However, the next Lunar Eclipse in March next year will be a Total Lunar Eclipse and will be visible from Ireland (that eclipse will not be a SuperMoon however).

As this eclipse can be photographed even with a camera phone Astronomy Ireland wants to publish photographs exclusively taken from Ireland in a special report to go into the next issue of Astronomy Ireland magazine.

Details of where to send your best photograph are on the society's website Astronomy.ie.

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