BATON ROUGE — A total lunar eclipse is happening late Thursday night and the Highland Road Park Observatory is hosting a viewing party for the historic event.

According to BREC officials, this will be the time Baton Rouge will bear witness to a total lunar eclipse that results in a phenomenon known as the blood moon in its entirety for a long time.

The eclipse, which will see the Earth pass between the moon and the sun, will be at its apex early Friday morning from 12:09 a.m. to 1:31 a.m., but the eclipse can be partially seen starting at 10:57 p.m. on Thursday.

The observatory's doors open at 10:30 p.m. and the viewing will last until 5 a.m. Friday morning.

The observatory said that no white lights will be allowed during the observation of the eclipse. 

"White light destroys night vision," the observatory said. "Please outfit your white flashlights with red construction paper, a red stretch balloon, red cellophane or a thin coat of red nail polish."

For more information regarding HRPO's event timeline, click here.