Wednesday marks the first of the two total lunar eclipses that the world will witness this year, with the latest this month set to be seen by millions in the countries located in Asia, the Middle East region, Africa and Australia.

Scientists said on Tuesday that the spectacle will be partially seen in Europe and the American continents, which will start at around 1724 GMT on June 15, 2011 with a duration that will stretch for an estimated six hours.

Experts said that night skywatchers can expect to marvel at the 'totality' of the eclipse for one hour and 30 minutes and after that, they will have to wait for another lunar show late this year, specifically on December 10 for another 'total' amazement.

Local astronomers also noted that the eclipse will be seen in Australia on Thursday, in which it will emit reddish or orange glow, according to Paul Floyd, who added that the phenomenon will be caused by Earth's atmosphere channelling amounts of light from the sun.

Yet this year's eclipse will be more intensely red, Floyd told the Canberra Times, due to the convergence of ashes earlier ejected into the skied by volcanic explosion that occurred in Chile and Iceland.

The publication quoted the scientist as saying that "this eclipse has the potential to be quite distinctly reddish, rather than just an orange colour."

Australian watchers will initially gaze on a partial eclipse by 6:13 am local time but the bursting daylight could obscure the spectacle, specifically preventing East Australians from watching the total phase of the eclipse, which is expected to last until the early minutes of 7 am.

Floyd reminded would-be watchers that the best time to view the moon is from 5:22 am, by which time people looking "above the western horizon ... will see the eclipsed moon in its full phase."

He added that it'll be great moment for digitally capturing the moments without the need to use viewing boosters as he stressed that "the nice thing about lunar eclipses is that the Moon is so big."