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Cape Town - Glowing blood-red and appearing far larger than normal, this was the moon during the early hours of Monday morning for South Africa and parts of Europe, and in the evening for the Americans.
The spectacle, known as a “supermoon”, happens only once every 30 years when a lunar eclipse occurs while the moon is at its closest point to Earth.
In other news: w atch the NASA Mars mystery announcement live at 5:30pm (SAST).
This makes the moon appear 14 per cent larger and 30 per cent brighter than when it is at its furthest point away. Meanwhile the lunar eclipse, when the moon is covered by the Earth’s shadow, makes it turn a deep red colour as sunlight is scattered by the Earth’s atmosphere. The last supermoon was in 1982 and the next is due in 2033.
It started just after 3am with the total eclipse taking place between 4.11am and 5.25am.
The phenomenon arouses much interest among the superstitious, with theories claiming it can cause temporary insanity or herald the start of the apocalypse.
Daily Mail and IOL