Look to the skies on Sept. 7-8 to witness Earth’s shadow roll over the lunar disk, giving rise to a deep red “blood moon.” Here’s what to expect during each phase of this week’s total lunar eclipse.

A total lunar eclipse occurs when Earth passes between the moon and sun, temporarily bathing the entire lunar disk in its shadow. This in turn causes our natural satellite to glow a deep red, as the scattered light from every sunrise and sunset on Earth is bent onto the lunar disk.

A surfer at a popular Sydney beach was mauled to death by a suspected “large shark” on Saturday, Australian police said, in a rare fatal attack.

The 57-year-old man was surfing with friends in the Pacific waters off northern Sydney’s adjoining Long Reef and Dee Why beaches when the attack happened, authorities said.

The man – an experienced surfer with a wife and a young daughter – lost “a number of limbs”, New South Wales police superintendent John Ducan told reporters.

“I do understand that both him and his board disappeared underwater,” he said. “The body was found floating in the surf.”

A couple of surfers saw him in the water and got him to shore, Duncan said.

“Unfortunately, by that time, we understand he lost probably a lot of blood and attempts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful,” he said.

People nearby saw the ocean predator, according to police, who earlier said they believed a “large shark” attacked the man.

Government experts will examine the remains of the surfboard and the man’s body to help them determine the species of shark involved, police said.

There are about 100 shark species in Western Australia, according to SharkSmart, a website run by Australian officials that warns about shark activity and gives tips on how to stay safe. Most of the species are capable of injuring humans, but an “overwhelming majority of them are not aggressive under most circumstances.” Most serious shark bites in ocean-loving Australia are from great whites, bull sharks, and tiger sharks.

After the incident, nearby beaches were closed for at least 24 hours. Drones and surf lifesavers on water skis were patrolling the beaches for shark activity.

Fatal shark attacks are rare. In 2024, there were only seven fatal attacks, including four unprovoked attacks, around the world, according to research by the International Shark Attack File, a database run by the Florida Museum of Natural History and the University of Florida.

Overall, shark attacks decreased dramatically in 2024 and were far below the annual average. 

This was the first fatal shark attack in Sydney since 2022, when a 35-year-old British diving instructor was killed off Little Bay. The previous fatal attack in the city was in 1963. Australia’s last deadly shark attack was in March, when a surfer was taken off the remote Wharton Beach of Western Australia.

Another surfer was presumed dead after a shark attack in South Australia in early January. A witness who saw the attack rode into the sea and retrieved the man’s surfboard, but officials said there was “no sign” of the surfer afterwards.

There have been more than 1,280 shark incidents around Australia since 1791, of which over 250 resulted in death, according to a database of the predators’ encounters with humans.

Kerry Breen

contributed to this report.

Many sky-gazers around the world will get the chance to see a dazzling celestial display this weekend — a total lunar eclipse that could cause the moon to take on a deep reddish hue.

The lunar eclipse will be visible Sunday for those in Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia, according to NASA. As the sun, moon and Earth line up in their orbits, the moon will be cast into a crescent-shaped shadow before being fully blocked from the sun by Earth. At that point, some light from the sun will make it around the edges of Earth. Blue light will be scattered by air molecules while the remaining wavelengths will reflect off the moon making it appear to glow red — what is known as a blood moon.

The event will start at 11:28 a.m. ET and end at 4:55 p.m. ET (though the eclipse will not be visible to those in the Eastern time zone). Totality — when the moon is completely covered by Earth’s shadow — will start at 1:30 p.m. ET and last for about an hour and 23 minutes, according to EarthSky.

“The beauty of a lunar eclipse is that it’s gradual. For folks that have seen solar eclipses, they happen fairly rapidly. The lunar eclipse is a far more relaxed environment,” said Noah Petro, chief of NASA’s Planetary Geology, Geophysics and Geochemistry Lab at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “You don’t have to be in a specific spot (to see it), but you have to be in the right hemisphere.”

For those in North and South America who will not be able to view the eclipse, there will still be opportunities to observe a bright full moon this weekend, otherwise known as the corn moon.

Here’s what experts recommend for best viewing of the full moon and the total lunar eclipse.

September’s full moon — nicknamed the corn moon as it aligns with the season for harvesting corn, according to the The Old Farmer’s Almanac — will peak around the same time as the lunar eclipse. But full moons appear round to the naked eye one day before and after their peak, so sky-gazers can observe the full moon all weekend and into Monday, Petro said.

For best viewing of the full moon and the total lunar eclipse, Petro recommends going outside and finding a spot away from bright lights, as they could hinder visibility of the natural satellite as it goes through all stages of the eclipse.

“A lunar eclipse is a truly incredible sight, and something you can see without any special equipment — you do not need a telescope or even the special eclipse glasses that you need for a solar eclipse,” Sara Russell, research scientist and head of the Planetary Materials Group at London’s Natural History Museum, said in an email. But having binoculars or a telescope available could add to the viewing experience, Russell noted.

The moon turns red once it is completely blocked by Earth’s shadow, illuminated by red-orange light from the sunsets and sunrises on the Earth, Petro said.

Occasionally, directly before and following totality, the moon can appear to have a blue and purple band of light upon it. This phenomenon is caused by sunlight passing through the Earth’s ozone layer in the upper atmosphere, Russell said.

While full moons occur every 29 days, lunar eclipses typically only happen about twice a year when the sun, moon and Earth align. For those who may be feeling left out, the next total lunar eclipse is set to take place on March 3 and will be visible in parts of North and South America, Petro said.

“I’m always happy to see the full Moon, whether there is an eclipse or not,” Russell said. “The Moon formed in the very earliest times of the Earth’s history, and the Earth and Moon have been through a lot together. You can see the evidence of that with the naked eye, looking up to see all the craters on the Moon that have been formed over 4.5 billion years of history.”

The next three full moons will be supermoons — full moons that occur when the moon is closest to Earth in its orbit, making it appear larger and brighter than regular full moons.

Here’s the list of full moons remaining in 2025, according to the Farmers’ Almanac:

Two weeks after the total lunar eclipse, on September 21, a partial solar eclipse will be visible in parts of Australia, the Atlantic, the Pacific and Antarctica. This occurs when the moon moves between the sun and Earth, blocking part of the sun’s light from view.

There are also opportunities to observe other solar system activity, including several meteor showers that will grace the night sky in the following months.

Here are the peak dates of meteor showers anticipated in 2025, according to the American Meteor Society and EarthSky.

Taylor Nicioli is a freelance journalist based in New York.