A near total lunar eclipse will be visible across large swathes of North and South America on Thursday night with millions of people expected to be able to see one of nature’s marvels.

Lunar eclipses occur when Earth moves between the sun and the moon and its shadow is cast on to the lunar surface. In Thursday night’s event 96% of the moon will be darkened by the Earth’s shadow at its peak moment.

The eclipse will be one known as a “blood moon”, as the Earth’s shadow will appear to be reddish due to the way sunlight is scattered by the Earth’s atmosphere. It will mainly be visible in the Americas but also in a few parts of Europe and Africa. It will begin about 9.23pm EST, peaking around 10.33pm EST.

Earlier this month, millions of people across Europe watched a more dramatic solar eclipse where the moon blocked out the sun, plunging parts of the continent into a daytime darkness.