The phenomenon will be visible from North and South America, when it will be late Wednesday, as well as Europe and Africa, when it will be early Thursday, and Antarctica, astronomers said Monday.

According to the US magazine Sky and Telescope, the eclipse will occur during Game 4 of baseball's World Series, when the Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinals are scheduled to meet in Missouri.

"This is the first time a total eclipse of the Moon will be visible from a major league ballpark during a World Series game, and such a coincidence is not likely to happen again until the second half of this century," it said, quoting US astronomer Joe Rao.

Total lunar eclipses occur when the Sun, the Earth and the Moon are all in alignment and the Moon travels into the broad cone of shadow cast by the Earth.

The Moon does not become invisible as there is still residual sunlight, deflected towards it by the Earth's atmosphere.

Most of this light is in the red part of the spectrum, and it is this which can cause the Moon to look so dramatically different for a brief while.

According to calculations made by NASA's veteran eclipse-watcher Fred Espenak, the partial eclipse will begin at 0114 GMT, when the terrestrial shadow will appear to crawl across the lunar face.

Total eclipse will be from 0223 to 0304 GMT. The end of the partial eclipse, when Moon emerges from the shadow, will be at 0454 GMT.

Total lunar eclipses occur roughly every couple of years.

They are quite different from total solar eclipses, which happen when the Moon crosses between the Earth and the Sun. The next total solar eclipse will take place on March 29, 2006, visible on a path extending eastwards from Brazil to western Mongolia.

Further details on these eclipses and information on eclipses in general can be found on Espenak's website, (http:sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/eclipse.html).

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