Twitter reacts to supermoon lunar eclipse

28 Sep 2015

Something altogether rare occurred in the early hours of Monday morning, as a perigee moon – known as a supermoon – underwent a lunar eclipse, with people all over the northern hemisphere looking on in awe.

A supermoon occurs when the uneven lunar orbit brings the moon closest to the Earth – there’s around 31,000 miles in between its furthest and closest orbits – making it around 14pc larger to the naked eye.

While lunar eclipses are fairly regular, with most years seeing two of these instances, for it to happen during a perigee moon is quite rare.

The last time it happened was in 1982, and the next time it will happen will be 2033. This meant many people stayed up until 4am to watch the moon go red and disappear for but a few moments.

Supermoon lunar eclipse in all its glory

And, for those of you who slept through it, here is Twitter to help you get up to speed.

Under the hashtag #SuperBloodMoon people from the likes of Dingle, Belfast, Washington and beyond got into the spirit of things to make for a picture-filled few minutes.

Main image via Shutterstock

Gordon Hunt was a journalist with Silicon Republic

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