moon eclipse
The moon turns red causing a phenomenon known as a 'blood moon', during a total lunar eclipse in Miami, Florida Getty

On Saturday morning the world will witness a lunar eclipse known as a "blood moon".

The eclipse is the third in a tetrad of four blood moons that happened last April and will end in September. It is expected to be the shortest lunar eclipses in recent times lasting no longer than five minutes.

It will be mostly visible in Australia and East Asia as well as east of America and is expected to start at 6.16pm Friday evening time (GMT) – 3.16am pacific time on Saturday morning.

It coincides with Holy Saturday for Saturday and Passover for Jews.

The tetrad has been viewed by many Christian pastors, such as Mark Blitz, as 'God's sign that His judgment is on its way'.

In an interview with faith magazine WND, Blitz said the blood moon was a sign of "prophetic times".

"The Bible talks of the times we are living in. Here we have the re-establishment of Israel as a nation in 1948 and the return of Jerusalem into Israel's hands in 1967. Now we have the signs in the heavens where the sun is turning to sackcloth and the moon to blood on the biblical holy days, warning both the nations and Israel against a two state solution," he said.

"People need to realize the Middle East problem is not a political one but a religious one. They need to realize that Allah and the God of the Bible are not the same being. One hates and wants to destroy Israel, and the other loves Israel. Until this is understood, you will never have peace in the Middle East."

For more information on the lunar eclipse visit Nasa's Marshall Space Flight Center which will be livestreaming the event.

More about blood moons