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Take a look at these stunning pictures of last night’s super blue blood moon

It was bigger and brighter than usual, and for some there was a lunar eclipse.
It was bigger and brighter than usual, and for some there was a lunar eclipse.

Wednesday night was a triple whammy of celestial events, with a super blue blood moon visible to keen astronomers who were in the right place to see it.

Here are some of the best pictures from the special evening.

Large bright moon shines down over lit-up Kelpies
The supermoon above the Kelpies in Central Scotland (Andrew Milligan/PA) (Andrew Milligan/PA Wire/PA Images)

There was a supermoon, meaning it was 14% bigger and 30% brighter than usual.

Giant moon silhouetted by passenger jet
A plane crosses the Blue Moon above Liverpool (Peter Byrne/PA) (Peter Byrne/PA Wire/PA Images)

It was also what is commonly known as a Blue Moon, since it was the second full moon in a calendar month.

Large white moon rises above the hill Glastonbury Tor sits on
A Blue Moon rises behind Glastonbury Tor, Somerset (Ben Birchall/PA) (Ben Birchall/PA Wire/PA Images)

Nasa took a time lapse of the night, which also shows the total lunar eclipse that was visible from North America, and resulted in a blood moon for some sky watchers.

A lunar eclipse is when the sun, moon and Earth are aligned, and the moon passes into the Earth’s shadow.

The moon rises over the London skyline (Kirsty O'Connor/PA)
The moon rises over the London skyline (Kirsty O’Connor/PA) (KIrsty O'Connor/PA Wire/PA Images)

The moon looked bigger and brighter because the full moon coincided with it being at “perigee”, when its orbit is at its closest to Earth.

Close up picture of the moon
This close-up photo was taken early on Wednesday evening from Taunton in Somerset (@Wayguns/PA)
Orange moon behind a crane
A blue moon rises over Waterloo Bridge, London (Yui Mok/PA) (Yui Mok/PA Wire/PA Images)
Incredibly bright moon above a stately home
The Blue Moon rises over Bolsover Castle in Derbyshire (Aaron Chown/PA) (Aaron Chown/PA Wire/PA Images)

The super blue moon could be seen the world over, weather permitting.

A bright white moon shines above erupting volcano
The super blue blood moon as seen from below the Mayon volcano mid-eruption in the Philippines (Bullit Marquez/AP) (Bullit Marquez/AP/PA Images)

Some pictures taken abroad show the rusty colour the moon turned that night.

When the lunar eclipse was in full swing and the moon was in the Earth’s shadow, the sunlight reaching past the Earth and illuminating the moon has passed through the Earth’s atmosphere.

The blue parts of this light were more likely to be scattered by the atmosphere, leaving more red and orange light to fall on the moon.

A super blue blood moon rises behind the Parthenon temple on the Acropolis of Athens, Greece (Petros Giannakouris/PA)
The moon rises behind the Parthenon temple on the Acropolis of Athens, Greece (Petros Giannakouris/PA) (Petros Giannakouris/AP/PA Images)

While some pictures of the super moon taken in the UK showed a distinct yellow-ish tint, that was not because of the eclipse but by a similar effect which kicks in when the moon is low in the sky.

“You may well have noticed that early on in the evening while the moon was still low in the sky, it was very clearly yellow,” said Dr Gregory Brown, an astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich. “This yellow colour is caused by our atmosphere scattering blue light away from the moon.

“This is also the reason why the sky appears blue, as blue light is scattered away from the sun (making it yellower) and scattered towards the observer from elsewhere in the sky. In big cities with high pollution, this effect can be even worse.”