The shortest total lunar eclipse, or "blood moon", of the century takes place overnight but will last just a few minutes.

The shortest total lunar eclipse of the century overnight (NZT) will take only a few minutes, while the entire eclipse will be visible from New Zealand.

The total eclipse will last about seven minutes, starting three minutes before 1am on Sunday, the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand informs.

Some part of the moon will be in the dark earth's shadow for three and a half hours, which is unusually long.

Reuters Nasa pictures capture the most recent blood moon, which took place back in October.

The process starts at 11.15pm and finishing at 2.46am Sunday, shortly before daylight saving ends at 3am.

Lunar eclipses are often referred to as blood moons because it looks reddish with the passing through the earth's atmosphere filtering out most of its blue light.

They happen when the moon moves into the shadow cast by the sun shining on the earth. For a total lunar eclipse, the moon must be full, which means it is directly opposite the sun, with earth in-between.

THE BEST SPOT TO SEE THE BLOOD MOON

People in the upper and lower North Island are best placed to view the eclipse, while central North Islanders likely to miss out.

The eclipse would be visible between 10pm and 3am, with the "most excitement" happening between 10pm and 1am, MetService meteorologist Richard Finnie said.

People in the region from Auckland to the Coromandel Peninsula were well placed to see the eclipse, as were those in Wellington, Wairarapa and Kapiti Coast, he said.

But a front moving southwards from the top of the North Island would lie over the central region, blocking the blood moon from view.

"That's sort of a no-go area," Finnie said.

The front would pass over Wellington region in the early evening.

"Come 10pm, it should be fairly starry," he said.

In the South Island, the best places to view the eclipse would be in Nelson, Marlborough and the West Coast.

Finnie said central areas of the South island, such as central Otago and the Mackenzie Basin, would also be good viewing spots.

"Canterbury probably starts off fairly good, but as the southerly picks up, it's probably going to push more cloud over the plains and against the foothills, especially in North Canterbury," Finnie added.

TETRAD

This eclipse is the third in a series of four lunar eclipses known as a tetrad. To qualify for the definition, the eclipses must be six lunar months apart and have no partial lunar eclipses in between. The last eclipse in the tetrad will be on September 28 but will not be visible in New Zealand.

On website EarthSky, it says there will be eight tetrads in the 21st century but there were none in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.

Given the short duration of the total eclipse, Sky & Telescope described the totality as "borderline" and said different authorities had given different lengths for how long it will last - from five to 12 minutes.

Watchers may get the impression the eclipse "never becomes quite total at all", it said.

The edge of the moon "squeaks so slightly inside the umbra (dark inner portion) of earth's shadow that it will remain much brighter than the deep red we can expect across the rest of the moon's face".

Space.com points out that Easter is supposed to be on the Sunday following the first full moon of spring. The reason is that in most parts of the world the full moon and the total eclipse happens on Saturday.

It also explained the partial eclipse was so long this time mostly because the eclipse was just three days after the moon arrived at apogee - its furthest point from the earth. That meant the moon's orbital velocity was quite slow, so it would take "a rather leisurely trek through earth's shadow".