People from across the globe looked up on 27/8 September to see a rare supermoon and lunar eclipse. The shadow of Earth cast a reddish glow on the moon, the result of rare combination of an eclipse with the closest full moon of the year.
Subject to clear skies, the supermoon was seen around the world; from La Paz in Bolivia, known for its great skygazing location, to Zhejiang Province in China.
The total supermoon lunar eclipse, also known as a blood moon is one that appears bigger and brighter than usual as it reaches the point in its orbit that is closest to Earth.
For more than an hour, Earths shadow blanketed the full moon as the planet passed between the sun and the moon. The brilliant white glow of the moon transformed into a dim red, with colouring caused by Earths atmosphere scattering sunlight into the shadow.
Victor Vallejos, an astronomer from the Max Scheier Planetarium of the University of San Andres, said hundreds of years ago, such unusual astronomical events were surrounded by superstition.
It has been more than 30 years since a supermoon combined with a lunar eclipse, said space agency Nasa. The next total lunar eclipse will not be until 2018. The next supermoon-lunar eclipse combination will not happen until 2033.
Because the moon is not perfectly round, its distance from Earth varies as it circles around the planet every 27 days. At its closest point, known as perigee, the moon comes as close as 225,622 miles) from Earth. At apogee, the most distant point, the moon is 252,088 miles away.
