The super blue blood moon has wowed stargazers in Perth, with clear skies giving a good view of the once-in-a-lifetime lunar triple treat.
A total lunar eclipse turned the moon a brooding, dark red over night on Wednesday with the eclipse coinciding with both a supermoon and a blue moon - for the first time in 150 years.
While clouds blanketed much of NSW, the ACT and South Australia late on Wednesday night, watchers in Perth and along the coast of Western Australia were treated to clear skies and the best views.
A super blue blood moon in seen coming out of the total eclipse phase over Perth in Western Australia on Thursday, January 31, 2018. Source: AAP
Viewers on Twitter tweeted a mixture of grainy pictures to professionally shot snaps, as they watched the earth's satellite above them.
Stargazers in parts of Tasmania, north of the Sunshine Coast and inland in the Northern Territory also had better luck.
"It's pretty cloudy across much of the country," a bureau spokesman told AAP on Wednesday.
"Coastal Western Australia should have beautiful clear skies but Sydney and Brisbane might not see anything at all."
The total lunar eclipse - which is referred to as a blood moon because of the moon's red hue - will be visible across Asia, parts of Europe and the United States.
A blue moon refers to when there is a second full moon in a calendar month.
"Tonight, we have three lunar events happening simultaneously; the moon will be at perigee (the closest point in its elliptical orbit to Earth), it will be a blue moon for most of the world and - most spectacularly - it will be a total lunar eclipse," Penrith Observatory manager Raelene Sommer said on Wednesday.
The observatory, in Sydney's west, was livestreaming the event.
Astrophysicist Alan Duffy said the random event is a rare trifecta, with the moon appearing bigger and a third brighter before it turns red when the moon passes into the Earth's shadow and reflects the sun back at the Earth.
Australians witness a total lunar eclipse about once every 2.8 years on average.
But it becomes a true rarity when combined with a supermoon and blue moon the lunar event.
