Watch The Moon Go Dark Tonite

After weeks of buildup, it's finally time to go outside and see the full moon go dark — or, if it's cloudy, watch the total lunar eclipse over the Internet.

North Americans should have the best seats in the house for tonight's event, which reaches its climax at 2:41 a.m. ET Tuesday when Earth's shadow covers every bit of the moon's disk. For more than an hour, the moon should glow sunset-red, thanks to the light refracted by the edge of Earth's atmosphere.

This eclipse is notable because it takes place just hours before the December solstice, which marks the beginning of northern winter and southern summer. The last Dec. 21 total lunar eclipse occurred in the year 1638. (Number-crunchers quibbled for a while over whether that one counted as a solstice eclipse, due to shifts between the Julian and Gregorian calendar, but the current consensus is that it does indeed count. The next winter solstice eclipse is due in 2094.)