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Miss Sunday's supermoon eclipse? Don't wait 18 years, see photos now!

The next simultaneous occurrence of a lunar eclipse during a supermoon won't happen again until 2033. We've rounded up views of Sunday night's spectacle from around the world.

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Philippe Wojazer/Reuters
The Moon, appearing next to a statue on the Alexander III bridge, in a dim red colour, is covered by the Earth's shadow during a total lunar eclipse over Paris, France on Monday.
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Christian Charisius/dpa/AP
The perigee full moon, or supermoon, appears red on the night sky above the 'Speicherstadt' in Hamburg, Germany, Monday morning.
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David Gray/Reuters
A surfer sits on his board as a supermoon rises in the sky off Manly Beach in Sydney, Australia, on Monday. The astronomical event occurs when the moon is closest to the Earth in its orbit, making it appear much larger and brighter than usual.
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Stian Lysberg Solum/NTB scanpix/AP
The perigee full moon, or supermoon appears red over Oslo early Monday morning.
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Haakon Mosvold Larsen/NTB Scanpix/Reuters
The total 'supermoon' lunar eclipse is seen from Vigeland Park in Oslo, Norway on Monday. Sky-watchers around the world were in for a treat Sunday night and Monday when the shadow of Earth cast a reddish glow on the moon, the result of rare combination of an eclipse with the closest full moon of the year. The total 'supermoon' lunar eclipse, also known as a 'blood moon' is one that appears bigger and brighter than usual as it reaches the point in its orbit that is closest to Earth.
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Stephanie McGehee/Reuters
A minaret of a mosque is silhouetted against the moon at the start of a total 'supermoon' lunar eclipse in Salhiya, Kuwait City on Monday. Sky-watchers around the world are in for a treat Sunday night and Monday when the shadow of Earth casts a reddish glow on the moon, the result of rare combination of an eclipse with the closest full moon of the year.
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Alessandro Di Meo/ANSA/AP
Earth's shadow obscures part of a so-called Supermoon during a total lunar eclipse above St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican, Monday. Supermoon, or perigee moon, is the name given when the full or new moon comes closest to the Earth making it appear bigger.
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Johan Nilsson/TT News Agency/Reuters
The supermoon appears above the Turning Torso building during a total lunar eclipse in Malmo, south of Sweden on Monday.
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Carl Recine/Reuters
A lunar eclipse coincides with a so-called 'supermoon' in Newcastle-under-Lyme­, Staffordshire, England, on Monday.
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Kay Nietfeld/dpa/AP
The perigee full moon, or supermoon, appears red behind the quadriga of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany, Monday morning. The combination of a supermoon and total lunar eclipse last occurred in 1982 and will not happen again until 2033.
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Lennie Mahler/The Salt Lake Tribune/AP
Earth's shadow obscures the view of a so-called supermoon during a lunar eclipse over the LDS Temple in Salt Lake City, Utah, Sunday.
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Sergei Grits/AP
A so-called supermoon is seen at the finish of a lunar eclipse behind an Orthodox church in Turets, Belarus, 69 miles west of capital Minsk, Monday.
  • By Michael Holtz Staff writer

Last night’s lunar eclipse combined with a so-called supermoon came and went in just over an hour. It was a rare astronomical treat for millions of stargazers across the world. 

Those who missed the celestial phenomenon will have to wait another 18 years for their next chance to see it. But there is no shortage of photographs of the event to help them bide their time until 2033. (Click through the above photo reel for a sampling of spectacular shots from around the world.)

"You always want to see the eclipse because they're always very different," astronomer Edwin Krupp, the director of Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, told the Associated Press.

Dr. Krupp said the earth's atmosphere adds "all kinds of twists and turns to the experience,” changing how dark and how red the moon appears. “It's always interesting to see," he added.

Yves Herman/Reuters
A combination of nine pictures shows the moon turning orange during a total 'supermoon' lunar eclipse in Brussels on Monday.

A large crowd filled the lawn of Griffith Observatory to watch the event while listening to Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata.” In Boston, people climbed onto roofs in search of the best view.

It was the first time both a supermoon and lunar eclipse have overlapped since 1982. The coupling was visible in the United States, Europe, Africa, and western Asia on Sunday night and early Monday.

Robert Roy Britt of LiveScience explains how it worked:

To start with, there will be a full moon, which occurs every 29.5 days when the sun, Earth and moon are pretty well lined up, with Earth in the middle. [On Sunday], the moon is in just the right spot on its orbit — which takes it above and below the plane of Earth's orbit around the sun — so the alignment will be perfect, and Earth will cast its shadow across the face of the moon. In fact, full moons are never totally full, because when they would be, the moon is in total eclipse.

As a bonus, the moon is at its closest point to Earth right now, so it will appear slightly larger than most full moons.

The event surely didn’t disappoint for those who saw it. At the height of the eclipse, the moon turned a dark red. It was in effect watching all the world's sunrises and sunsets casting their glow on it.

This report includes material from the Associated Press.

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