Blood moon dazzles skygazers in centurys longest eclipse

The eclipse, though, was not visible in America and the Pacific.

Millions of stargazers around the world have caught a glimpse of the rare lunar eclipse – the longest one of the 21st century.

People gathered at 8am on Saturday to watch a rare celestial event known as a selenelion – where an eclipsed moon and the sun can be seen in the sky at the same moment.

During the eclipse, the moon will appear red, giving it the nickname “blood moon”. Amateur astronomers in the southern hemisphere will be best-placed to enjoy the spectacle, especially those in southern Africa, Australia, India and Madagascar, though it will also be partly visible in Europe and South America.

On Twitter and Instagram, eclipse watchers can tag their photos of the eclipse with the hashtag #timeanddatelive so that others can browse them more easily.

This happens because blue light undergoes stronger atmospheric scattering, so red light will be the most dominant color highlighted as sunlight passes through our atmosphere and strikes the moon.

The next such lunar eclipse won’t be until 2123.

The next time we will see a similarly long eclipse will be on August 6/7, 2036, which will last for six hours and 12 minutes from start to finish.

Widespread monsoon rainstorms and thick clouds hid the moon across much of India and its neighbours, which should have had a prime view.

Whether a full moon turns coppery red depends entirely on the atmospheric conditions and how much dust is in the air to bounce off the light from the sun. Mars comes close to Earth approximately every two years, Ruotsalainen said.

“I also looked on topographic maps and used Google Street View and found a hill where I could look over a house and see the lunar eclipse”.

And yes, you’ll likely hear this eclipse being referred to as the “blood moon”.

The Weather Channel will host a live stream on its app beginning at 4 p.m. EDT on July 27 so people can watch on their phones.

This phenomenon takes place when moon is covered in the shadow of the earth. That means the planet and the sun will be on exact opposite sides of the Earth and will shine its best.

Venus and Jupiter, along with Mars, are easy to pick out due to their brightness. At that time, it came within 34.6 million miles of earth, marking its closest approach in 60,000 years.

Reuters charted the eclipse from across the world, capturing a shimmering orange and red moon above Cairo, the Temple of Poseidon in Cape Sounion, near Athens, the Bavarian village of Raisting in Germany, Rio beach in Brazil and Johannesburg.