A blood-red "supermoon" will cast its light on the Earth early on Monday.

It will be a rare chance to capture a spectacular celestial event that has not occurred for 30 years - a lunar eclipse with the moon near to its closest point to the Earth.

When the moon is at "perigee", its shortest distance from the Earth, it is 226,000 miles away and appears 14% larger and 30% brighter than when it is at its furthermost point.

The last time this coincided with a lunar eclipse, when the moon is covered by the Earth's shadow, was in 1982.

During a lunar eclipse, the moon turns a deep rusty red, due to sunlight being scattered by the Earth's atmosphere.

Astronomy Ireland is running an Eclipse Watch event from 2am to 6am on Monday morning at its Dublin headquarters.

According to our calculations there won't be an evening eclipse visible from Ireland until 2029 so make sure you stay up late on Sunday. — Astronomy Ireland (@AstronomyIRL) September 25, 2015

Down through the ages, so-called "blood moons" have been viewed as ill-omens by superstitious people.

Monday's eclipse is said to be even more significant, since it marks the completion of an unusual line-up of four total eclipses at six monthly intervals known as a "tetrad".