A photographer's journey to capture a blood moon rising over the South China Sea. 'It was an incredible moment'

Planning, uncertainty, a last-minute road trip and elation in the battle against cloud cover. Malaysian photographer Tharuman Gnanamoorthy set off on a personal mission to capture the March 3 Blood Moon total lunar eclipse.

Gnanamoorthy's stunning composite photos document the mesmerizing beauty of the orange-red full moon as it rose fully eclipsed over the eastern coast of Malaysia, along with the waning partial phases that followed as Earth's shadow slipped from its ancient surface. They represent the culmination of weeks of planning, skill and luck, which may never have come to fruition had a single decision fallen the wrong way.

Gnanamoorthy kept a watchful eye on the weather forecast as the eclipse drew closer, tracking cloud fronts that could make or break his expedition. "At one point, I even experimented with trying to "train" my Seestar S50 to detect the moon through cloud cover — an attempt that, unsurprisingly, proved futile," lamented Gnanamoorthy.