On Sunday September 27th you may have been lucky enough to look at the east sky and see a bright blood red moon. Many people gathered outside to witness the once in a generation event with telescopes and cameras.

This occurrence was very rare and if you didn't see it you'll have to wait over 20 years to get your next chance.

A lunar eclipse occurs when the sun, earth and moon align to form a straight line with the earth in the centre.

The earth casts its shadow on the moons surface which does not receive any sunlight for a period of time.

The moon completely entered the "umbra" which makes it a total lunar eclipse that lasted for one hour and twelve minutes on Sunday.

Sunlight is bent by the earths atmosphere causing the moon to turn that blood red colour. This wasn't the only rarity of the event as it was also a parigee super moon, meaning that because the moons orbit is elliptical, there are points where the moon is actually closer to the earth than at other times.

When the moon is at it's farthest point from the earth, it is about 405,554 km away. When the moon is at it's perigee it is about 363,711 km away which makes the moon appear to be about 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than when the moon is at it's farthest point from earth, or its apogee.

Since 1900, the super moon total lunar eclipse has only occurred five times, once in 1910, 1928, 1946, 1964, 1982 and of course 2015. With the next super moon total eclipse occurring in 2033 everyone should be sure to prepare for this rare, astronomical event.