Photos: Super moon puts on a dazzling show in clear Southcentral Alaska skies

By Anchorage Daily News

Updated: January 31, 2018 Published: January 31, 2018

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The waning lunar eclipse hangs above Skyscraper mountain at Independence Mine State Historical Park early Wednesday morning, Jan. 31, 2018. (Loren Holmes / ADN)

The moon staged a rare triple show early Wednesday when a blue super moon combined with a total lunar eclipse visible from western North America to eastern Asia.

The overlap of a blue moon – the second full moon in a calendar month – with a lunar eclipse while the moon is at its closest approach to Earth was the first such celestial trifecta since 1982, said Noah Petro, a research scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center outside Washington.

The moon reached its fullest at 4:27 a.m. Wednesday Alaska time, just minutes before the peak eclipse.

Alaska in path of first 'super blue blood full moon' eclipse in decades

Video: Watch as the supermoon rises over Anchorage