The night sky put on a spectacular show on Wednesday and into the early hours of Thursday morning, when a total lunar eclipse of the full moon gave us a blood moon.
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A blood moon is so-named because a fully eclipsed moon takes on a reddish hue as light passes through the Earth’s atmosphere.
A super moon occurs when a full moon happens at or near the moon’s closest approach to Earth in its orbit.
Last night’s moon qualified as a super moon because it occurred just 27 hours after the moon reached the closest point to Earth, known as perigee.
It was also called a blue moon: the term refers to the second full moon within a calendar month.
Technically, this did not happen in the eastern states of Australia, as the moon became full at 12.26am on February 1; however, in most of the world, the full moon fell on January 31.
