STAR gazers turned out across East Lancashire to see the moon turn red during the lunar eclipse.

Clear skies throughout most of the region gave an excellent view of what turned out to be one of the brightest and most colourful eclipses of the moon in a decade.

The event began at around 6.30pm when the earth's shadow could be seen sliding across the surface of the moon. The eclipse was complete from about 7.50pm when the last sliver of light disappeared.

The total eclipse lasted for about two hours with the moon turning from white to a deep copper colour, produced by the sun's rays filtering through the earth's atmosphere.

The Planet Earth Centre, Bacup Road, Todmorden, opened specially for the event from 6.30-9.30pm with demonstrations, models and a chance to see the eclipse through a telescope.

John Keegan from the centre, said the event was a great success with crowds of people turning up to watch the eclipse.

He said: "It was an absolutely fabulous night and we were really quite surprised at the amount of interest it generated. We were packed out.

"The eclipse is more of a fun thing and a good video experience rather than useful for research, but it was a great opportunity to tell people about how events like this happen.

"It was wonderful to be able to show people what was happening on a model at the observatory and then take them outside and show them the real thing."