City in the picture as Moon to go blood-red

A Met Office forecaster said he was "very hopeful" that the sky would be clear over the Capital for the spectacular meteorological event.

The lunar eclipse has been predicted by the Royal Astronomical Society who expect it to begin at 8.52pm and end at 10.08pm.

When the full Moon rises over the UK, the total lunar eclipse will already be under way. The sky will be bright when the Moon first rises as the sun does not set until a few minutes later.

But, as the sky darkens, a dim reddish-brown Moon should be visible climbing slowly above the south-east horizon.

A Met Office spokesman said: "There is a good chance of broken cloud. Edinburgh will see a lot of rain tonight and tomorrow morning but that should clear away by tomorrow night.

"With a bit of luck people in the city will be able to see the eclipse.

"I would say there is a 89 per cent chance of broken cloud which is all you would need."

Dr Jacqueline Mitton, of the Royal Astronomical Society, said: "If the weather is kind to us, this could be a very interesting sight, with the eclipsed Moon becoming more and more obvious as the sky gradually darkens after sunset and the Moon gets higher in the sky.

"Lunar eclipses are a fascinating and beautiful phenomenon, and no two are quite alike. But they are of no real scientific importance in astronomical research."

Lunar eclipses can only occur at full Moon. They occur when the sun, Earth and Moon are in a near-perfect line, and the Moon travels through the shadow which the Earth casts in space.

The Moon does not become invisible during an eclipse, but appears a dark colour - usually a shade of brown, coppery-red or orange. This is because the Earth’s shadow is not completely black.

The colour the Moon takes on varies from one eclipse to another, according to how much dust there happens to be floating in the atmosphere at the time.