moon eclipse
The moon turns red causing a phenomenon known as a 'blood moon', during a total lunar eclipse in Miami, Florida Getty

Images of the blood moon during the first total lunar eclipse of 2014 have been uploaded online by budding astronomers across the globe.

Although the lunar eclipse was streamed online, many people chose to watch the phenomenon live and captured photographs of the event where the moon turned red.

Related

Explaining why the moon turned read during this total lunar eclipse, space.com said the moon reflects sunrises and sunsets that are taking place across the globe: "While the moon is in shadow, some light from the sun shines through Earth's atmosphere."

"Red light - unlike other colours that are blocked and scattered - is better able to penetrate the atmosphere, which creates this "bloody" effect.

People who missed out on the blood moon have three more chances to see the rare cosmic event. Last night's marked the start of an eclipse tetrad, where four total lunar eclipses take place back to back. These will occur over the next 18 months.

Here are the best photos from Twitter of the blood moon.

There it is: my (almost live) #BloodMoonEclipse from #Chile (some clouds had to disappear first) pic.twitter.com/5lx1sCbOER

— Jan Hattenbach (@JanHattenbach) April 15, 2014

...and a last #BloodMoonEclipse from me - w passing clouds (which disappeared *exactly* when totality started! #Chile pic.twitter.com/VNjxPRmwaF

— Jan Hattenbach (@JanHattenbach) April 15, 2014

the clouds thinned and i could see the red moon below spica and over from mars! #LunarEclipse #SSO pic.twitter.com/qBSop84Dut

— ★ dr amanda bauer ★ (@astropixie) April 15, 2014

Pic from the Mt Lemmon Skycenter. 13 #eclipse #totallunareclipse #lunareclipse #BloodMoonEclipse #eclipselunar #moon pic.twitter.com/TUfa4YSsVm

— Observing Space (@ObservingSpace) April 15, 2014

@BBCStargazing a partial blood moon taken over St Ives bay (Cornwall) this morning at 0519 pic.twitter.com/5sITYMkjxk

— Matt (@narcobarman) April 15, 2014

#bloodmoon as seen from Fort Myers, FL. @NASA #totallunareclipse #LunarEclipse #LunarEclipseFlorida pic.twitter.com/HdAZozWRtk

— John Magero (@jpmagero) April 15, 2014

Nice job dad! MT @iScienceLuvr: @NASAGoddardPix #Eclipse in Sac, CA taken by dad @Cornellian1988 w Spica & Mars pic.twitter.com/59yppGS5FC

— NASA Goddard Images (@NASAGoddardPix) April 15, 2014