Call it a cosmic consolation prize.

While the United States is preparing for a total solar eclipse in a few weeks, most of Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia and Antarctica will receive their own celestial show: a partial lunar eclipse on Monday night. (It will be Tuesday in East Asia and Australia.)

Lunar eclipses are basically the opposite of solar eclipses. Rather than the moon moving in between Earth and the sun, as will happen Aug. 21, during a lunar eclipse it’s Earth that plays “monkey in the middle,” casting its shadow on the moon.

Earth’s shadow has two parts: the umbra, which is the darker inner portion, and the penumbra, the lighter outer part. Their interactions with the moon can create three types of lunar eclipses: partial, total and penumbral.

During a partial lunar eclipse, only part of Earth’s umbra covers the moon. This is because the alignment of sun-Earth-moon is not perfect, and Earth’s shadow instead appears to take only a bite out of the moon rather than engulf it completely. Sky gazers will notice that a portion of the moon’s face has turned dark as it enters the umbra.