Evening viewers in much of Asia and early risers in parts of the Americas were treated to a stunning lunar eclipse on Wednesday, though clouds obscured it for some.

Lucky ones saw the moon turn orange or red in what is known as a "blood moon." The hue results from sunlight scattering off Earth's atmosphere.

At the Sydney Observatory in Australia, whoops of joy erupted as the moon made a brief appearance.

"Very spectacular," Sydney Observatory astronomer Geoff Wyatt said. "The cloud certainly got in the way, but we've seen it during totality and of course that's always the highlight — to see that lovely, reddish-brown color."

In Australia's capital, Canberra, Rachel Buckley watched the event from her driveway.

"It looked small, but very, very clear and really orange, I thought — blood orange," she said. "It was quite exciting, pretty amazing to see . because it's not very often you get to see that."

In Japan, clear skies turned partly cloudy as the eclipse progressed, but people who gathered on the rooftops of skyscrapers in Tokyo saw the moon turn a rusty brown when the clouds cleared.