A rare blue supermoon has appeared over the UK, treating stargazers to a phenomenon that will only happen once this year.

Unlike its name suggests, a blue moon is not named after the colour and instead refers to the second full moon in one calendar month.

Most months only have one full moon, so a second is quite a rare event, occurring approximately once every two or three years.

Appearing larger than usual, it was expected to rise at around 8pm (BST) on Thursday to then set at around 6am the following day, but it shone on Wednesday night.