A total lunar eclipse "blood moon" visible over Liverpool - (PA)
The country’s stargazers had the chance to see the total lunar eclipse on Sunday evening as a “Blood Moon” was visible from parts of the UK.
For the first time since 2022, the UK witnessed the moon turning a deep, dark red as the Earth passed directly between the sun and the moon, casting its shadow across the lunar surface.
According to the Met Office, the moon took on a reddish hue because it was illuminated by light that had passed through the Earth’s atmosphere and had been bent back towards the moon by refraction, scattering blue light and allowing red wavelengths to reach the moon.
People watch a full ‘Blood Moon’ during a total eclipse from above Riex, western Switzerland (AFP/Getty)
Where skies were clear, the eclipse was visible at around 7.30pm.
The eclipse was visible to the naked eye, and unlike solar eclipses, was safe to view directly as the moon’s reflected light is not as bright.
The ‘Blood Moon’ rises over the West Bank, as seen from the Negev desert in Israel (Reuters)The lunar eclipse is seen from Bourg-en-Lavaux, Switzerland (Reuters)
However, the rare spectacle was more visible in many other parts of the world, including parts of Africa and the Middle East.
A lunar eclipse happens when the Earth moves between the moon and the sun, obscuring the latter and turning it dark.
The light that reaches the lunar surface is scattered by the Earth, so that it appears red to people watching from the ground.
The Royal Observatory Greenwich said the next opportunity to see a lunar eclipse in the UK will be on 28 August 2026. But that is only a partial eclipse, unlike this weekend’s total one.
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