People from across the country watched from under the stars as a super moon lunar eclipse played out in the night sky on Wednesday evening.
The blood moon lunar eclipse on Wednesday. Alistair Bain supplied this image, taken at Orewa, north of Auckland. Photo: Supplied / Alistair Bain
Dubbed a blood moon, a total lunar eclipse coincided with what is known as a supermoon when it was at its closest point to Earth.
Nelson space scientist Duncan Steel - who was watching from the cathedral in the city - told Lately "at 8.47pm New Zealand time the moon started going into the penumbra of the Earth - the diffuse shadow. At 9.45pm was start of the partial phase ... it's like there's a bite taken out of the moon as you look at it".
That covered the moon as it moved behind the Earth's shadow.
At 11.11pm it was covered - although some small amounts of sunlight were still getting to the moon because it filtered through the Earth's atmosphere - and that was what gave the moon its red colour, Steel said.
However, he thought calling it the colour of blood was "a bit melodramatic".
As for the term "super moon", Steel said that meant the moon was close to the nearest it came to Earth.
"It's orbit around the Earth is not circular, it's an ellipse and so it varies in its distance away from the Earth by about 11 percent and it just so happens that at the moment, the moon is just about the closest it ever comes to the Earth, therefore, it looks extremely bright. But as I say, as the totality comes, it goes extremely dark."
The blood moon almost eclipsed on Wednesday evening. Alistair Bain supplied this image, taken at Orewa, north of Auckland. Photo: Supplied / Alistair Bain
Stardome astronomer Tom List told RNZ "It was pretty much the first lunar eclipse in years where the weather was good enough to see it all the way through.
"One thing you never quite know ... is if it is going to be a deep dark red or an orangey red. This time it was very, very dark.
"What you are seeing (the red colour) is a little bit of scattered sunlight going through the Earth's atmosphere."
The brighter the red, the clearer the Earth's atmosphere was, List said.
"From a science point of view we know everything about eclipses, but they are just really cool to look at.
"It is a little bit humbling to see that."
Social media was flooded with images throughout the evening as the eclipse took place, and thousands of people joined online to watch a live broadcast recorded in Torbay in Auckland.
The moon pictured as the lunar eclipse progressed on Wednesday evening. Photo: Supplied / Olive Karena-Lockyer
The partial lunar eclipse seen on Wednesday evening. Photo: RNZ / Isra'a Emhail
