A lunar eclipse is perfectly safe to see since the moon is merely ducking into Earth’s shadow. The sun is behind us. Step outside and you’ll catch the moon from your Washington-area location. During totality, the moon will turn a variation of red or rusty orange, according to U.S. Naval Observatory astronomer Geoff Chester.

For Washington, the partial eclipse phase, which is when you can see our lunar companion enter the deeper part of Earth’s shadow, starts about 4:09 a.m. Eastern time. The moon will be about 30 degrees above the horizon in the western sky, Chester said.

The moon darkens and then enters the totality phase at 5:16 a.m. — when you are likely to see a reddish tint. At that time, for Washington, the moon will be about 15 degrees above the western horizon.

Maximum eclipse occurs at 5:59 a.m., but the lunar disk is only about 8 degrees above the horizon, which is low and hard to see, he said. You’re going to need a higher place. Totality ends at 6:41 a.m., the sun rises at 6:43 a.m. and the moon sets at 6:50 a.m., according to the observatory.

The western United States will get to view all phases. For the November feast’s next course, the Leonid meteor shower will peak on the night of Nov. 17-18, according to the American Meteor Society (amsmeteors.org).

The society forecasts about 15 shooting stars an hour at peak, so in a dark sky, you’ll see a few.

To look, find a hot beverage, go out later at night and into the morning hours, move away from streetlights, get your eyes acclimated to the dark and stare at the sky.

The American Meteor Society notes that some astronomers think the Earth may go through a heavier-than-expected dusty trail for this year’s Leonids, and gazers may be treated to more than 50 meteors an hour. Nobody knows until the shower occurs.

Meteors become visible when the Earth — on its annual tour around the sun — runs into dusty, pebble-filled streams left by comets gone by. For the Leonid meteors, the parent is Comet Tempel-Tuttle, a periodic dirty snowball discovered independently by the German astronomer Wilhelm Tempel and by Horace P. Tuttle, a Naval Observatory astronomer.

Tuttle found it on Jan. 5, 1866, from the observatory, then located at Foggy Bottom. (Tuttle died in 1923 and is buried in an unmarked grave in Falls Church, near Seven Corners.)

Saturn leads a line of planets deep into the night. Find the ringed planet in the southern sky just after nightfall. On Nov. 1, it will be that dot — at about zero degrees magnitude, bright — just above the first-quarter moon. Saturn has a second encounter with the moon Nov. 28.

Large Jupiter can’t be missed in the southeast after dark. The planet is an in-your-face -2.8 magnitude (very bright) object and greets the moon Nov. 4.

The rusty, reddish Mars ascends the east-northeastern sky more than two hours after sunset in the Taurus constellation now. At -1.2 magnitude, our neighboring planet beams with brilliance. It gets better. At the end of November, it rises just after 5 p.m. at a phenomenal -1.8 magnitude, according to the observatory.

Mars is in glorious opposition — in other words, a full Mars — on Dec. 8 when it reaches -1.9 magnitude.

As the leaves fall, we’re reminded to turn our clocks back one hour to standard time on Nov. 6 at 2 a.m.

Down-to-Earth Events:

* Nov. 12 — Enjoy the late-autumn skies at the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, with telescopes provided by Northern Virginia Astronomy Club volunteers. 6 to 8 p.m., 14390 Air and Space Museum Parkway, Chantilly, Va., 20151. Information: novac.com

* Nov. 13 — “Amateur Telescope Making — Past and Future,” a talk by astronomer Guy Brandenburg, who has been teaching the art of telescope making for nearly two decades. The talk will be at the Northern Virginia Astronomy Club meeting, Room 3301, Exploratory Hall, George Mason University. 7:30 p.m. Information and remote meeting. Details at novac.com.