At 7:41 am local and GMT time, the Moon swung into the cone of shadow cast by Earth, where no ray of sunlight could reach it directly.

On a Reykjavik parking lot, a crowd of about 30 people braved the bitter cold to gather around a telescope set up by the Amateur Astronomical Society to observe the Moon and stars.

"It's absolutely magnificent," said Torfi Olafur Sverrisson, a bank IT worker in his 40s witnessing a lunar eclipse for the first time.

"This is incredible, especially being able to view it up-close (thanks to the telescope) and not only the Moon, but Saturn as well," 35-year old Bergny said.

The chairman of the astronomical society, 30-year-old Saevar Helgi Bragason, explained that although lunar eclipses happened every two or three years, few had ever seen one up close.

"We wanted to give people the chance to view this lunar eclipse through a telescope because not many people have ever seen this happen, even if it's quite common," he told AFP.

"We'll see it again here in Iceland in two years for example," he said.

The stage of total eclipse -- when the Moon heads into the "umbra" cast by the Earth -- lasted from 0741 to 0853 GMT.

The entire event was to be visible from North America, Greenland and Iceland, with western Europe seeing the beginning stages before moonset and western Asia getting the later stages after moonrise.

Despite being in shadow, the Moon did not become invisible, though, as there is still residual light that is deflected towards it by our atmosphere.

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