A Lunar Eclipse is a natural phenomenon. It occurs when the Earth falls in direct alignment with the Sun and the Moon, resulting in the Moon's passing into the shadow of the Earth.

During a lunar eclipse, the Sun and the Moon should travel to the opposite side in the sky (about 180° apart from each other). In other word, lunar eclipse can only occur during full moon ( around about 15th of a lunar month ). Why  doesn't  lunar  eclipse occur every month? The answer is quite complicated. The Sun and the Moon travel around the sky in a circular paths called ecliptic and the moon's path. However, the moon's path is tilted about 5° to the ecliptic, making the alignment of the Sun, the Earth and the Moon in a straight line a relatively rare case. Only when the Sun and the Moon are close enough to the nodes (crossing points of the ecliptic and the moon's paths) during full moon, a lunar eclipse can occur.

There are three types of lunar eclipse: total lunar eclipse, partial lunar eclipse and penumbral lunar eclipse. When the Moon totally enters the umbra (the full shadow) of the Earth, it is a total lunar eclipse; When only part of the moon passes into the umbra, it is a partial lunar eclipse; As to the penumbral lunar eclipse, it describe a phenomenon when the Moon only enters the penumbra (the partial or incomplete shadow) of the Earth. During a penumbral lunar eclipse, the brightness of the Moon is only marginally reduced. As it is nearly unnoticeable to the naked eyes, it doesn't draw much public attention.

As the size of the umbra of the Earth is much larger than the Moon, the Moon is always totally inside the Earth's shadow during total lunar eclipse. Hence there is no such thing as "annular lunar eclipse".

Total lunar eclipse goes through seven stages:
Moon enters penumbra : Instant of first external tangency of Moon with the penumbra.
Moon enters umbra : Instant of first external tangency of Moon with the umbra.
Total eclipse begins : Instant of first internal tangency of Moon with the umbra.
The greatest eclipse : The moment when the centre of the Moon is the closest to the centre of the Earth's shadow.
Total eclipse ends : Instant of last internal tangency of the Moon with the umbra.
Moon leaves umbra : Instant of last external tangency of the Moon with the umbra.
Moon leaves penumbra : Instant of last external tangency of the Moon with the penumbra. It marks the end of the lunar eclipse.

For more detail, you can go to "Nature of the Universe " Chapter 7  ─ The Moon and Eclipses in Teacher's Corner.

Forthcoming lunar eclipses from 2007 to 2011:

Date 1	Type	Hong Kong	Hong Kong Time 2	Mag. 3	Moonrise	Moonset
04/03/2007	Total	Visible	5:30am - 9:11am	1.2	5.57pm (03/03)	6:46am (04/03)
28/08/2007	Total	Visible	4:51pm - 8:23pm	1.5	6:42pm (28/08)	6:37am (29/08)
21/02/2008	Total	Invisible	9:42am - 1:09pm	1.1	-	-
17/08/2008	Partial	Visible	3:36am - 6:44 am	0.81	6:34pm (16/08)	6:06am (17/08)
09-10/02/2009	Penumbral	Visible	8:36pm - 12:39 am	0.93	6:02pm (09/02)	7:12am (10/02)
07/07/2009	Penumbral	Invisible	4:32pm - 6:44pm	0.18	-	-
06/08/2009	Penumbral	Invisible	7:01am - 10:17am	0.43	-	-
01/01/2010	Partial	Visible	2:51am - 3:54am	0.083	5:18pm (31/12)	7:18am (01/01)
26/06/2010	Partial	Visible	6:16pm - 9:00pm	0.54	7:08pm (26/06)	6:07am (27/06)
21/12/2010	Total	Visible4	2:32pm - 6:01pm	1.3	5:44pm (21/12)	7:36am (22/12)
16/06/2011	Total	Visible	2:22am - 6:02am	1.7	6:43pm (15/06)	5:46am (16/06)
10-11/12/2011	Total	Visible	8:45pm - 12:18am	1.1	5:27pm (10/12)	7:13am (11/12)

¹ The date showed in the table is the time for the "Moon enters umbra" or the "Moon enters penumbra".
² For Total / Patial lunar eclipse, the time period is for the "Moon enters umbra" to "Moon leaves embra". For Penumbral lunar eclipse, the time period is for the "Moon enters penumbra" to "Moon leaves penumbra".
³ For Penumbral lunar eclipse, Magnitude is equal to Penumbral Magnitude.
⁴ Partial Lunar Eclipse occurs in Hong Kong.