Supermoon and lunar eclipse light up night sky

Stargazers across the world were treated to a rare event on Tuesday night, as a supermoon coincided with a partial lunar eclipse.

A supermoon is when the Moon appears bigger than usual.

And a lunar eclipse happens when the Earth's shadow blocks a bit of the Moon from sight, making it look like a bite has been taken out of it.

It's not very often these two things happen at once, and people all over the globe snapped some pretty cool pictures of it.

What is a supermoon?

Supermoons occur because the Moon's orbit around Earth isn't a perfect circle: it's an elliptical or egg-shaped orbit.

So sometimes the Moon is closer to Earth and sometimes it is further away.

The Moon doesn't change size, it just looks bigger when it is closer.

Supermoons look very big in the night sky, and so are incredibly easy to spot from the ground!

What is a lunar eclipse?

Usually, the full Moon is big, bright and fully lit from the Sun.

But sometimes, the Earth reaches a point in its orbit where it blocks some of this light.

To us back on the ground, it looks as though a chunk of the Moon is missing.

Unlike a solar eclipse, lunar eclipses are safe to look at without any additional eye protection.

Although it would have been very subtle difference this time - only about 4% of the moon was blocked.

In August 2026 though, stargazers can look forward to a lunar eclipse hiding 96% of the Moon.