WASHINGTON, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- A feast for the eyes of stargazers is just around the corner with a total lunar eclipse occurring on Jan. 20-21, 2019.

What's more, it will be a striking combination of a supermoon and a blood moon, a rare spectacle occurring when the moon, at its closest point to the Earth, appears slightly bigger and much brighter, meanwhile taking on an eerie red hue as sunlight scatters through the Earth's atmosphere.

From start to finish, the umbral lunar eclipse will last just over three and a half hours, with totality accounting for an hour or so, according to U.S.-based science and nature radio EarthSky.

The night-time "dazzling show" will be visible in all of North America and parts of Europe and Africa, weather permitting, with a glimpse of a partial eclipse captured at moonset in the Middle East and the rest of Africa, according to world time service provider TimeandDate.

Legend has it that "amid the cold and deep snows of midwinter, the wolf packs howled hungrily outside Indian villages," hence the name for the first full moon in January.