From southern parts of the UK, the initial partial phase and the beginning of totality were expected to be visible, with the Moon dropping down into the western sky as dawn approached.

Your next chance to see the Moon this large and bright, this time at full phase within only a few minutes of lunar perigee, will be next year on May 6.

From Mercury, both the Earth and its comparatively large moon will always appear as small circles of reflected sunlight and will never show a crescent phase.