Early Tuesday morning, a full lunar eclipse will be fully visible in Iowa.

According to NASA’s Web site, the event will begin after 3:30 a.m. local time and last well into the morning as the sun rises.

A lunar eclipse only occurs during a full moon when the moon passes through the earth’s shadow, called the umbra or preumbra – depending on the degree to which the moon is in the shadow – causing it to slowly darken over a few hours of the night.

Charles Kerton, assistant professor of physics and astronomy, said the color of the moon could vary.

“It all depends on how much dust is in the atmosphere whether it could be red or very dark,” Kerton said.

Because Iowa is in the Midwest, the eclipse shouldn’t be completely finished until after the sun comes up, so the sun will end the event before the moon can fully reappear. The farther west one travels, the more of the eclipse will be visible.

Kerton said that, unlike potentially harmful solar eclipses, lunar eclipses do not pose a threat to unprotected vision.

“It’s something special to see, and it’s not something that will be over in just a couple minutes,” Kerton said.

The eclipse will peak after 5 a.m., but will still last for 90 minutes as the sun drifts out of Earth’s shadow.