Blood moon dazzles

A glorious blood moon delighted skygazers in many parts of New Zealand last night.

From the Far North to the Deep South, onlookers waited patiently for the lunar eclipse. It all kicked off around 10.20pm, said Andrew Buckingham of the Auckland Astronomical Society, who gathered with friends at his Torbay home.

Time lapse shows movement of lunar eclipse

When the eclipse began, it looked like a "bite was being taken out of the moon", he said.

"It got bigger and bigger and bigger, and by about quarter past 11 it was just a sliver of white on one side."

Just before 11.30, the white light disappeared.

"It went to totality and the moon went that nice pinky-red colour," Mr Buckingham said.

By switching between a telescope, binoculars and the naked eye to watch the eclipse, he and his friends were also able to catch a glimpse of the planet Uranus. "It's next door to the moon."

The bronzy red colour last night occurred because the moon passed directly behind the Earth into its shadow. An eclipse like that occurs only when the sun, Earth and moon are closely aligned, with the Earth in the middle, and only during a full moon.

The next one will be in January 2018.