Watch: Giant European antenna tracks Chandrayaan-3 with Moon's movement

On the evening of August 30, as the sun set in Western Australia, a rare celestial event unfolded. A 'super blue Moon' graced the sky, captivating stargazers and astronomers alike.

This phenomenon is a unique combination of a calendar blue Moon - the second full moon in a single calendar month - and a supermoon, which occurs when the moon is at its closest point to Earth in its orbit.

As the moon rose from the horizon, it wasn't just the spectators on Earth who were interested in this rare spectacle. The European Space Agency's (ESA) New Norcia deep space antenna also turned its attention to Earth's natural satellites.

WATCH EUROPEAN STATION TRACKS CHANDRAYAAN-3

However, the ESA's interest extended beyond the super blue Moon.

Earlier in the month, on July 14, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) had launched Chandrayaan-3. This mission aimed to achieve India's first soft landing on another celestial body. On August 23, the Chandrayaan-3 Lander Module successfully touched down on the lunar surface, making India the fourth nation to achieve such a feat.

The ESA has been providing ground station support to the mission, using its antennas worldwide to communicate with the spacecraft, control its flight and surface operations, and receive crucial information about the spacecraft's health and data from its scientific instruments.

The New Norcia station, located approximately 140 km north of Perth, Western Australia, was one of the stations supporting Chandrayaan-3. On the evening of the super blue Moon, a series of fortunate coincidences offered a rare view of this support in action.

As the super blue Moon was at its brightest for observers in Western Australia just after the local sunset, the New Norcia antenna began its latest data exchange session with the Chandrayaan-3 Lander Module on the lunar surface.

The unusual brightness and location of the Moon in the sky aligned perfectly to make it visible in the live webcam aimed at the New Norcia antenna for almost the entire three-and-a-half-hour communication window.

This rare alignment of events allowed engineers to capture the ESA antenna chasing the super blue Moon and the Chandrayaan-3 Lander across the Australian sky.

As the Chandrayaan-3 surface operations end with both the lander and rover in sleep mode, the European Space Agency has said that the planned activities have also ended with the lunar daylight.

"The survival of the Lander and Rover into the next lunar day would indeed be a phenomenon that only happens once in a blue Moon," ESA said.