[GENERAL] character encoding of the postgres database

Currently, the postgres database by has SQL_ASCII encoding.

psql -p 5771 postgres -l
                            List of databases
   Name    |  Owner  | Encoding  | Collate | Ctype |  Access privileges
-----------+---------+-----------+---------+-------+---------------------
 postgres  | sandeep | SQL_ASCII | C       | C     |
 template0 | sandeep | SQL_ASCII | C       | C     | =c/sandeep         +
           |         |           |         |       | sandeep=CTc/sandeep
 template1 | sandeep | SQL_ASCII | C       | C     | =c/sandeep         +
           |         |           |         |       | sandeep=CTc/sandeep
(3 rows)

Is it possible to start the postgres database with UTF-8 encoding, instead
of modifying it later.

Thanks
sandeep