The moon has turned red in the skies above North and South America at the start of a rare series of lunar eclipses some fear signals the end of the world. The so-called 'blood moon', which occurs when the Earth's shadow passes over the moon, will be repeated three times this year and next.

The phenomenon, known as a tetrad, will not happen again until 2032.

Previous tetrads have coincided with significant religious events and the current series of 'blood moons' aligns with a number of Jewish holidays.

While some Christians were worried the event could have catastrophic consequences, referring to a passage in the Bible that states "The Sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord comes".

Astronomers in North and South America saw the 'blood moon' for about 80 minutes.

The total eclipse, the first since in more than three years, lasted from 7:06am-8:24am GMT (2:06am-3:24 EST), with the greatest eclipse visible at 7:46am GMT (2:46 EST).

At the instant of greatest eclipse, the Moon lies at the zenith for a point in the South Pacific about 3000 kilometres southwest of the Galapagos Islands. The umbral eclipse magnitude peaks at 1.2907 - as the Moon's northern limb passes 1.7 arc-minutes south of the shadow's central axis.

In contrast, the Moon's southern limb lies 9.0 arc-minutes from the southern edge of the umbra and 40.0 arc-minutes from the shadow centre.

This means the northern half of the Moon appeared much darker than the southern half, because it lies deeper in the umbra.

However, skywatchers in most of Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia were out of luck because the event happens after moonset.

The second blood moon of the year will occur on October 8th, with the tetrad's remaining two expected on April 4th and September 28th, 2015.

Astronomer Michelle Thaller from NASA expalins more.