Photos of super blue moon over Northland: Kiwis react to lunar wonder

Advocate photographer Michael Cunningham snapped this photo of the moon in Whangārei last night.

Shots of a stunning, rare super blue moonrise are doing the rounds as people remain in awe at the astronomical phenomenon that graced our skies for the first time in 14 years.

The spectacular sight of a supermoon happens about three or four times a year when the moon is full and is as close to the Earth as it can get. On Thursday night it was about 20,000km closer than normal.

When two full moons land in the same calendar month the second instance is known as a blue moon. Thursday night was the second full moon and a supermoon, hence a super blue moon.

Auckland Planetarium’s Rob Davison told the Herald people should have been able to see the moon by simply gazing out their windows.

Northlander Kevin Wigmore spotted the blue moon rising over Bream Bay around 6.35pm yesterday.

“I noticed others rushing down to the river to take photos on their cellphones too.”

He said there was “quite a lot of excitement”.

Kevin Wigmore of Northland captured the super moon as it rose over Bream Bay on Thursday.

Kelly Bradley took this photo of the super moon over Dargaville.

Philippa Mentor-Blomeley says she was playing around with her camera last night when she took this photo of the super moon.

Glenis Goodall's stunning photo of the super moon in Northland.

Rose Tantau's photo of the super moon taken from the park on Panarama Dr up Parihaka.

J Tilson was able to capture how bright the super moon appeared in the night sky.

A close up of the super moon by J Tilson.