'Blood moon' sightings across Europe and Asia
STORY: Nighttime skywatchers from East Asia to North America were treated to the rare spectacle of a "Beaver blood moon" on Tuesday, weather permitting, as the Earth, moon and sun align to produce a total lunar eclipse for the last time until 2025.
November's full moon cast its glow over the Acropolis in Athens on Tuesday, the country's most famous landmark, and the ancient 5th century B.C. marble Parthenon temple.
Thousands of people, mainly tourists, flocked to Thailand's northern Chiang Mai province to release thousands of lanterns into the sky to celebrate the annual Yee Peng festival, also known as the Thai 'Festival of Lights'.
According to the organizer, about 8,000 visitors from all over the world joined the festival this year, not its peak number.
Stargazers gathered at Sydney's Observatory, where telescopes, a wall projection of the eclipse and scientific talks, explained the phenomenon.
The eclipse occurs when the moon moves into the conical shaped shadow of the earth, blocking out light from the sun.
Some light, though, will still reach the moon because it is bent by the earth's atmosphere - giving the moon its distinctive red hue which earns it the name "blood moon."
