More than 100 students and astronomy lovers were able to watch a recent partial lunar eclipse at the biggest astronomical station in northern Vietnam on early Wednesday morning.

The eclipse viewing event, the first of its kind to have been hosted at Hoa Lac Astronomical Station, was organized by the Vietnam Space Center in collaboration with the Hanoi Astronomical Society.

More than 100 visitors, including children and their parents, as well as K-12 and university students, came to the space observatory from late Tuesday.

They first watched a science documentary about the galaxy, planets, and other astronomical matters at the station’s iconic dome-shaped theater before going outside to prepare for the main activity - observing the eclipse.

On the grounds of the station, participants set up camps and learned how to get their telescopes ready.

At around 2:30 am on Wednesday, the first sight of the moon became visible, with the eclipse’s midpoint taking place at around 4:00 am.

The event was over at 5:30 am when the phenomenon ended.

Lunar eclipse is an astronomical phenomenon when the moon appears darkened as it passes through the Earth's shadow.

A partial lunar eclipse occurs when only a portion of the moon enters the Earth's umbra, while a total lunar eclipse happens when the entire moon gets into the planet's umbra.

Besides Vietnam, Wednesday’s partial eclipse was also observable in much of Asia, Europe, Eastern South America, Western Australia, and Africa.

The next partial eclipse is expected on November 19, 2021.

The Hoa Lac Astronomical Station, opened in January, is located at Hoa Lac Hi-Tech Park, 30 kilometers from Hanoi's center.

The facility has a 100-seat dome-shaped theater and doubles as a hub of study and research of astronomy.

It is one of the two space observatories in Vietnam, with the other located in the south-central coastal city of Nha Trang.

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