Australians looking to the sky early this morning have seen the Moon turn red amid this century's longest lunar eclipse.
The total eclipse lasted one hour, 42 minutes and 57 seconds, though a partial eclipse preceded and followed it, meaning the Moon spent a total of three hours and 54 minutes in the Earth's umbral shadow, according to NASA.
Andrew Jacob, curator at the Sydney Observatory, said hundreds of people had paid to watch the event from the observatory.
"Our event is sold out," he said yesterday.
"We have about a couple of hundred people that are booked in to come and watch it with us."
A total lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth's shadow moves across the Moon, blocking out light from the sun.
Andrew Fabian, professor of astronomy at the University of Cambridge, explained how the Moon took on the red hue.
"It's called a blood Moon because the light from the Sun goes through the Earth's atmosphere on its way to the Moon, and the Earth's atmosphere turns it red in the same way that when the sun goes down it goes red," he said.
Meanwhile, Mars is currently traveling closer to Earth than it has since 2003, so some observers overnight might have also seen what looked like an orange-red star, but was in fact the red planet.
Robert Massey, deputy executive director of the Royal Astronomical Society, said it was a "very unusual coincidence to have a total lunar eclipse and Mars at opposition on the same night".
While this morning's lunar eclipse was long, they can be longer — up to one hour and 47 minutes.
The longest eclipse of the 20th century fell on July 16, 2000. It lasted one hour, 46 minutes and 24 seconds.
The next eclipse to last that long will occur on June 9, 2123, but it will not be visible from Australia.
This eclipse will be visible from Europe, Russia, Africa, the Middle East, much of Asia and Australia.
ABC/Reuters
