STARGAZERS ACROSS THE world kicked off the new year with an amazing sight last night – the first supermoon of the year.

A supermoon occurs when the moon is closest to earth on its orbit and there’s also a full moon in the sky. It appears brighter and larger – something hard to spot with the naked eye – than normal.

Last night, the moon reached its closest point to Earth – some 3,56,565km – shortly before 10pm. It became full at 2.30am.

Photographers across Ireland and the world were out capturing it in the January sky.

Ireland

[image alt="DSC_3087 (3)" src="http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2018/01/dsc_3087-3-296x197.jpg" width="296" height="197" credit-source="Gavin%20Reilly%20" caption="Wexford" class="alignnone" /end]

[image alt="IMG_9262" src="http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2018/01/img_9262-296x222.jpg" width="296" height="222" credit-source="Eoin%20O'Hagan" caption="Lough%20Derg%2C%20Donegal" class="alignnone" /end]

[image alt="Supermoon- New Years Day" src="http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2018/01/supermoon-new-years-day-296x198.jpg" width="296" height="198" credit-source="Gary%20Collins" caption="Wicklow" class="alignnone" /end]

[image alt="IMG_20180101_170759" src="http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2018/01/img_20180101_170759-296x166.jpg" width="296" height="166" credit-source="Greg%20Rybak" caption="Kinsale%2C%20Cork" class="alignnone" /end]

Gougane Barra, Cork Neil Lucey Neil Lucey

The last time the moon was this close to earth was November 2016, and we will have to wait until February 2019 for the next one.

However, the second supermoon taking place this month – known as the Blue Moon – will be an even rarer event than last night. Blue Moon is the term given to the second of two full moons taking place in one month.

Unfortunately, you won’t be able to spot this from western Europe, but Asia and North America will get the best views.

Here are some of the incredible photos captured around the world last night.

Taichung City, China

[image alt="#CHINA-SUPER MOON(CN)" src="http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2018/01/china-super-mooncn-296x201.jpg" width="296" height="201" credit-source="Xinhua%20News%20Agency%2FPA%20Images" class="alignnone" /end]

Glasgow, Scotland

[image alt="Wolf moon" src="http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2018/01/wolf-moon-296x197.jpg" width="296" height="197" credit-source="John%20Linton" credit-via="PA%20Images" class="alignnone" /end]

New Jersey, United States

[image alt="New Jersey Supermoon" src="http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2018/01/new-jersey-supermoon-296x197.jpg" width="296" height="197" credit-source="Julio%20Cortez" credit-via="PA%20Images" class="alignnone" /end]

Did you capture a photo of the supermoon last night? Email us at pictures@thejournal.ie

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