A rare total lunar eclipse, also known as a Blood Moon, will be visible across the UAE on Sunday evening, treating skywatchers to one of the year’s most dramatic celestial sights.
The celestial show will appear for about five and a half hours, as the Moon passes through the Earth’s shadow.
It will play out in a sequence of phases, visible across the UAE and around the world.
“This is one of the rare astronomical events happening in the UAE in 2025,” Khadijah Ahmed, operations manager at the Dubai Astronomy Group, told The National. “We will host an event for the eclipse and encourage everyone to witness it. You don’t need any special equipment – just go outside and look up.”
It will be visible to about 87 per cent of the world’s population, including those in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Europe and Australia.
Timeline of the dramatic phases
It begins at 7.28pm GST, when the Moon enters the faint outer edge of Earth’s shadow in what is known as the penumbral phase. The change will be faint at first, but by 8.27pm it will look as though a dark bite has been taken out of the Moon.
Totality, when the Moon is covered completely by the Earth’s shadow, will take place at 9.30pm, turning the lunar surface a striking shade of red or copper.
The eclipse reaches its peak at 10.12pm and totality continues until 10.53pm.
From there, the shadow will gradually recede, until the eclipse has ended just before 1am on Monday. The Moon will spend 82 minutes fully eclipsed, making it one of the longest total lunar eclipses in years.
Why it happens
A total lunar eclipse happens when the Sun, Earth and Moon line up perfectly, with the planet casting its shadow across the Moon.
Instead of disappearing, the Moon takes on a dramatic new look because sunlight bends through Earth’s atmosphere, which filters out the blues and lets the red and orange tones shine, giving it the Blood Moon moniker.
Where to watch the eclipse
The eclipse will be visible across all seven emirates, but skywatchers interested in a community experience can observe it with the Dubai Astronomy Group.
It is hosting a public viewing event at the Mohammed bin Rashid Library from 7pm to 11pm, with tickets priced at Dh250 ($68) for adults and Dh200 for children.
There will be telescopes and astronomy-themed activities.
The organisation will also lead a global livestream, in collaboration with observatories and astronomy groups from more than a dozen countries including Spain, Australia, India, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
The group is also plans to capture an image of the Moon eclipsed over Burj Khalifa.
Long wait for the next one
Those who miss Sunday’s spectacle will have to wait until July 6, 2028, to view another lunar eclipse in the UAE's skies.
That will only be a partial eclipse, with a portion of the Moon darkened by the Earth’s shadow. The next total lunar eclipse in the UAE will be on December 31, 2028 – a New Year’s Eve Blood Moon that will last more than five hours.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
