Red moon rising

The moon takes on a red hue, seen through a telescope from Cape Saunders on the Otago Peninsula last night.

A "blood moon", or lunar eclipse, happens when the moon passes through the Earth’s shadow.

The photo above was captured by Tūhura Otago Museum director Dr Ian Griffin, who also writes about the eclipse in the ODT's Skywatch column.  

The last blood moon happened in 2022.

The next one is due later this year.

Izumi Schmidt Uchida happened to share the moment with a fur seal and sent in this photo. 

She headed out to Aramoana to watch the eclipse and a faint moon appeared about 8.30pm.

"The moon was not where I was expecting - but it was even better. There was a fur seal just below."

Brad Phipps says he got a good view from Brighton too.