Pretoria residents hoping to catch the much-talked-about Blood Moon eclipse on March 3 will have to look online instead of up at the sky, as the total lunar eclipse will not be visible from South Africa.

The good news is local stargazers can still watch the event live through online streams and follow the rare celestial show from home.

This phenomenon is highly prized by stargazers because the entire lunar disk takes on a reddish colour for a few moments.

The lunar eclipse will be visible from North America, the Pacific, Australia and East Asia, but won’t be visible in Europe or Africa.

Here is the Blood Moon explained:

A total lunar eclipse is often called a ‘blood Moon’ because the Moon turns a dark, rusty red.

This is a result of sunlight passing through Earth’s atmosphere and becoming refracted.

Our planet’s atmosphere is filled with gases and particles that act like a filter, scattering blue light (which is why the sky is blue during the day).