Total lunar eclipse graces night sky over Santiago

A total lunar eclipse graced the sky over Santiago on Sunday, providing a night-time thrill for stargazers in Chile's capital. The moon was bathed in the reflected red and orange hues of Earth's sunsets and sunrises for about an hour and a half.

It was one of the longest totalities of the decade and the first so-called "blood moon" in a year. Partial stages of the eclipse were visible across Africa, Europe and the Middle East, but Alaska, Asia and Australia missed out on the celestial show.

A total eclipse occurs when Earth passes directly between the moon and the sun, and casts a shadow on our constant, cosmic companion. The moon was expected to be 225,000 miles away at the peak of the eclipse.