Stargazers all over Australia woke early this morning eagerly looking forward to the first lunar eclipse of the year and for those who saw it, they were not disappointed.

The lunar eclipse was described as spectacular, beautiful and awesome according to comments by early morning eclipse watchers on a report from the Sydney Morning Herald. The eclipse started at around 3.25 am and finished at sunrise.

Not all states were treated to the same show however as hopeful stargazers in NSW were disappointed by dense cloud cover and rain barring the view of the eclipse. Victorians were blessed with clear skies while those residing in West Australia got the best seats in the country with the eclipse fading into twilight. Of course as scientists were eager to tell viewers before, the best view would have been on the moon with lucky astronauts being able to see the earth blaze with a ring of light.

For those stuck on Earth, the view was still worth gushing over. The moon was a coppery red color at the start of the eclipse, and then turned to a very dark brown towards the end. The ash from the Puyehue volcano actually added to the visual effect of the eclipse. It took just over 100 minutes for the eclipse to end which makes this one of the longest lunar eclipses of the past century.

A lunar eclipse occurs when the moon, earth and sun are completely in line and the moon passes into the earth's shadow. This lunar eclipse is one of the two predicted to occur this year. The reason the moon goes red is that the earth's atmosphere scatters the sun's light thus allowing only red photons to pass.

Sky gazers who missed this lunar eclipse will still be able to catch a repeat this December 10. The December eclipse will occur at a much earlier time so there would be no reason to wake up at such an early hour.

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