The Best Pictures From The Rare Super Blue Blood Moon

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Last night (31 January) people around the world watched on as a rare lunar event took place before their very eyes - a Super Blue Blood Moon.

In the UK we were only treated to the ‘super’ and ‘blue’ parts of the celestial spectacle (the blood comes from the occurrence of a lunar eclipse which was not visible in Western Europe).

But don’t feel left out, we have collected the best pictures from around the world that show all three parts of the rare Super Blue Blood Moon, a phenomenon that was last visible to Earth in 1866.

HEIKO JUNGE via Getty Images
Longyearbyen, Svalbard, Norway.
Chris J Ratcliffe via Getty Images
St. Paul's Cathedral, London, UK.
TED ALJIBE via Getty Images
Mayon volcano, Philippines.
Orlando Sentinel via Getty Images
Orange County Courthouse, Orlando, USA.
Matt Cardy via Getty Images
Downside Abbey, Stratton-on-the-Fosse, UK.
KIM WON-JIN via Getty Images
Ryugyong hotel, Pyongyang, North Korea.
Barcroft Media via Getty Images
Lhokseumawe, Indonesia.
Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Turkey.
Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Kutahya, Turkey.
Al Seib via Getty Images
Los Angeles, USA.
Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Edirne, Turkey.
JOSH EDELSON via Getty Images
San Francisco, USA.
Gary Hershorn via Getty Images
New York, USA.
Kent Nishimura via Getty Images
Los Angeles, USA.
Bloomberg via Getty Images
San Francisco, USA.
Allen J. Schaben via Getty Images
California, USA.
Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Van, Turkey.
SOPA Images via Getty Images
Srinagar, India.
VCG via Getty Images
Zhengzhou, China.
Irfan Khan via Getty Images
Whittier, Canada.
VCG via Getty Images
Zhengzhou, China.
VCG via Getty Images
Zoucheng, China.
Boston Globe via Getty Images
Massachusetts, USA.

What is a Super Blue Blood Moon?

A Super Blue Blood Moon is basically the coincidental collision of three separate lunar events at one point in the calendar.

A supermoon happens when the moon enters perigee - or passing through the closest point to Earth in its orbit - appearing 7% bigger and 14% brighter. This is the third time this has happened in 2018, says NASA.

The blue part of the name originates from the fact it will be the second full moon of the month, commonly called a blue moon.

And on the very same night as both those occurrences, there will also be a lunar eclipse, which causes the blood moon. As the sun is blocked out from view by the passing of the moon, it turns a deep red colour.

This is because some sunlight skims through the atmosphere and gets slightly refracted or bent towards the moon.

Together they all make the Super Blue Blood Moon.

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