The Lunar eclipse last night (Wednesday, 15 June) was not just exciting because it was the longest one in over a decade, but because it saw unprecedented interest from the public to turn up and watch it across the Arab world.

The lunar eclipse was over 100 minutes long and one of the darkest in decades. Science outreach programmes for the public jumped on the opportunity across many countries.

In Saudi Arabia, the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) set up telescopes for the public to come and watch the eclipse as it happens. Astronomy societies in at least three other Saudi Arabian cities. In Jeddah, a local public park was transformed into an observatory with 10 modern telescopes set up and dozens flocking to watch the event.

In nearby Oman, the Astronomical Society of Oman set up telescopes in the courtyard of the huge Sultan Qaboos Mosque for people to come and watch the rare event. Scientists also held lectures for the public to explain the eclipse phenomenon and how it happens in a simple way easy to understand.

In Egypt, the American University in Cairo (AUC) prepared an interactive night where they opened their campus to the public. Besides setting up telescopes for the visitors to watch the eclipse, they also had a puppet show aimed at young children that explains the eclipse in a fun way. After the moon disappeared completely, a video conference link was set up with Egyptian-born Farouk Al-Baz, director of the remote sensing centre at the Boston University, who talked about his time while working on the Apollo Program and his memories of the first moon landing.

Away from the planned events across the regions, heads in the streets, balconies and windows were often churned upwards as they watched the eclipse. Professional and amateur photographers were setting up tripods to take pictures as the moon turned orange and blood red.

Astronomy and space are one of the most exciting fields of science for a non-scientist audience so such events are a good opportunity to get people excited about science. In fact, Maged Al-Sherbiny, president of the Academy of Scientific Research and Technology in Egypt, said that marking such astronomical events will be one of the items on the science ministry’s agenda to promote science in post-revolution Egypt.

I know I was glued watching the eclipse for well over two hours since it was a beautiful sight. On Twitter, dozens of Arabs were all discussing how excited they are to watch the eclipse.

The event might not be happening again anytime soon, but at least we had one whole night when the most interesting event across the Arab world was actually science!