'Super blood moon' today

For the first time in decades, skygazers are in for the double spectacle today of a swollen "supermoon" bathed in the blood-red light of a total eclipse.

The celestial show, visible from the Americas, Europe, Africa, west Asia and the east Pacific, will be the result of the Sun, Earth and a larger-than-life, extra-bright Moon lining up for just over an hour from 0211 GMT.

"It will be quite exciting and especially dramatic," predicted astronomer Sam Lindsay of the Royal Astronomical Society in London.

"It'll be brighter than usual, bigger than usual."

The Moon will be at its closest orbital point to Earth, called perigee, while also in its brightest phase.

The resulting "supermoon" will look 30 percent brighter and 14 times larger than when at apogee, the farthest point -- which is about 49,800 kilometres (31,000 miles) from perigee.

Unusually, our planet will take position in a straight line between the Moon and the Sun, blotting out the direct sunlight that usually makes our satellite glow whitish-yellow.

But some light will still creep around Earth's edges and be filtered through its atmosphere, casting an eerie red light that creates the "blood moon".

For people younger than 33, this will be their first-ever chance to see a "super blood moon".

The last, only the fifth recorded since 1900, was in 1982, according to the NASA space agency, and the next will not be until 2033.