Share

Blood supermoon: fantastic total lunar eclipse photos from around the world

The eerie light created from a lunar eclipse with the moon near to its closest point to the Earth delighted amateur astronomers.

Advertisement

The eclipse lasted 1 hour and 12 minutes and was visible in North and South America, Europe, Africa, and parts of west Asia and the eastern Pacific.

For more than an hour Sunday night, Earth’s shadow will blanket the full moon as the planet passes between the sun and the moon.

“Misleadingly, a few articles are calling it a ‘blood moon, ‘ which is just superstition and astrology and has nothing to do with what will actually happen”, Pasachoff said.

The next lunar eclipse visible from the the United Kingdom is due in January 2019, but a lunar eclipse won’t coincide with a super moon again until 2033.

The last super-blood-moon, only the fifth recorded since 1900, was in 1982, according to the US’ National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Interestingly, the moon in the evening sky on Monday will come to its nearest to the earth, appearing not only a shade brighter but also bigger than usual. The earth’s shadow darkens the moon slightly, before the phenomenon of Rayleigh Scattering (the same effect that makes sunsets appear orange and the sky blue) makes the moon appear blood red.

The last supermoon total lunar eclipse occurred 33 years ago.

IF you didn’t set your alarm clock to get up for the lunar eclipse this morning, here are a selection of photos taken over Brighton.

As early as 8 p.m. on the night of September 27, students gathered outside of dorms and on university lawns to catch a glimpse of the blood moon eclipse.

Sunday saw the closest full moon of the year, about 30,000 miles closer to the Earth than the average distance.

Advertisement

It was the first time both a perigee moon (also known as a supermoon) and a total lunar ecplise have happened at the same time since 1982.

YOUR PHOTOS: Our readers capture the Super Blood Moon