Pakistan on Wednesday will witness the darkest lunar eclipse of this century with an expected duration of 50 minutes, considered by astronomy institutions to be one of the longest.

The total eclipse is expected to last 50 minutes, starting at around 12:22am, says department of weather forecast.

Being described as one of the ‘darkest’ eclipses, this is the first lunar eclipse to have occurred this year, and one of the two in the world’s 2011 calendar.

Tonight’s lunar eclipse will be seen across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Australia.

Fortunately for space aficionados, the lunar eclipse will not give off any harmful radiations, said astronomy expert Dr Mohammad Shahid Qureshi.

“It means that they will be able to view the phenomenon without reserve, unlike a solar eclipse.”

Also, while a solar eclipse can only be viewed in a comparatively small region, a lunar eclipse is visible to anyone living on the night side of the earth.

Periodically you get a lunar eclipse where the Moon actually passes through the shadow of the Earth as it's on the opposite side of the Sun, and that's what happens in a lunar eclipse.