A total lunar eclipse will turn the moon red this Thursday. It will be best seen in North and South America. No special equipment is needed.

The appropriately named "blood moon" will take on a pronounced reddish hue when the eclipse begins to emerge across the United States Thursday night.

When sunlight hits Earth’s atmosphere during a lunar eclipse, light frequencies toward the blue end of the visible spectrum are scattered outward, away from Earth’s umbra, but those with longer wavelengths, toward the red part of the spectrum, are bent inward and cast onto the moon.