Missed this century's longest "blood moon" last night? Check out photos taken by Stomp Team

The longest total lunar eclipse of this century, lasting an hour and 43 minutes, happened on the early morning of Saturday (July 28), coinciding with a Mars opposition in a rare astrological phenomenon -- a “blood moon”.

Many stargazers stayed up or woke up early simply to catch a glimpse of the blood moon. 

For those of you who couldn’t stay up or wake up in time, don’t worry. The Stomp Team did just that.

During our viewing, the moon turned increasingly reddish, an effect from the Mars opposition which occurs when the Sun, Earth and Mars align in a straight line. This Mars opposition is especially significant as this is the closest that Mars, at its point of orbit, has come in proximity to Earth, at 57 million kilometres away. 

As the moon drew closer to the Earth’s umbra, which is the darkest part of Earth’s shadow, its surface started adopting an increasingly scarlet hue. Photos taken by the Stomp Team at about 4am show that a blood red moon. 

Stomper Kannan also managed to capture breathtaking shots of the celestial event on his way home, and from his flat in Woodlands which he sent to Stomp.

(Story continues after videos) 

Said Kannan:

“I stayed up from 2am to 5am. 

“It was cloudy here in Woodlands at about 3.45am. For around five to 10 minutes the cloud covered the entire moon. I was quite worried that I wouldn't be able to see anything. 

“A friend in Jurong then sent me some photos and I was surprised because the moon was fully visible.

“I went back to take a look, and the clouds had disappeared.”

According to Kanan, the peak happened at around 3.45am, when the moon was the most visible. 

The phenomenon attracted many aficionados who flocked down to Marina South Pier for a stargazing event organised by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore and local astronomy community SingAstro. 

There, more than 500 members of the public turned up to view the phenomenon from Marina South Pier’s roof garden with 16 telescopes provide by SingAstro. 

Students from the astronomy club of the School of Science and Technology, Singapore, also helped to manage the telescopes in order to capture the event in a video that was live-streamed to their school’s YouTube channel.

The vice-president of the club, 14-year-old Yee Jia Chen said that he and the team were thrilled to be able to capture this "very rare occasion”.

SingAstro member Chin Zong Yang, 26, told The Straits Times that it was rare for the two astrological events to happen on the same day:

“I feel very lucky and excited to facilitate the viewing of this rare event for the public.”

The founder of SingAstro, Mr Remus Chua, said he was greatly encouraged by the number of people turning up, citing that it was “surreal and amazing”. 

He added:

“This is the first time that we have an astronomy outreach where it extends into the dawn hours. It's amazing that the crowd had stayed up to experience the longest lunar eclipse...

"With these two celestial events and with the good spirit of the astronomy community, I really think this has been a successful event."