It all looked so promising — but then the clouds rolled in.
Hundreds of stargazers across Otago and Southland woke early on Saturday morning in the hope of catching a glimpse of a lunar eclipse and a rising sun in the sky at the same time.
In an event known as a selenelion, the two celestial bodies can be seen in the sky at the same time because light from the sun bends as it passes through the atmosphere.
It all seemed to be going well as a reddish shadow started to creep across the face of the moon.
In Dunedin many people gathered at the city’s high points, including Mt Cargill, the Signal Hill lookout and the Pineapple Track.
But just after 7.30am, as the moon was fully covered in the earth’s shadow, it dipped behind some low cloud to the south of the city and disappeared from view.
Elsewhere in Otago and Southland, cloud also obstructed the view of the full eclipse.
Further north, Otago Museum Dr Ian Griffin observed the celestial phenomena from the Mt John Observatory, near Tekapo.
From his vantage point high above Lake Tekapo, the view was spectacular, Dr Griffin said.
"The early part was clouded out but it was really lovely as it peeked out through the clouds and the sun was rising and the clouds were changing colour. It was really glorious."
Having seen his fair share of lunar eclipses, Dr Griffin said this one was particularly dark, which was one reason it quickly disappeared from view.
"It probably has something to do with the amount of volcanic material in the atmosphere at the moment.
"There’s been a bit of volcanic activity around the world recently and often times you get really dark eclipses because that type of activity clouds the earth’s atmosphere."
