Ahead of the total lunar eclipse, the temple of Lord Venkateswara on the hills of Tirumala will be closed for Darshan from 4 pm on Wednesday.

 It remains closed for the next 14 hours and devotees will be allowed for darshan from 6 am on Thursday after purification (Suddhi) and other special pujas.

The total lunar eclipse begins at 17:23:05 UT (22.53 IST Wednesday) and ends at 23:02:15 UT (04.32 IST Thursday) with the greatest eclipse taking place at 19:22:11 UT (00.52 IST on Thursday) and ending at 21:03:02 UT (2.33 IST on Thursday).

The first of the two total lunar eclipses of the year 2011, lasting for one hour 41 minutes, would be visible over Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia and present a spectacular phenomenon to the viewers.