Rare supermoon total lunar eclipse viewable in Southern Utah

The "blood" moon in eclipse, St. George, Utah, Sept. 27, 2015 | Photo by Dave Amodt, St. George News

ST. GEORGE — Mother Nature tried to put a stop to sky viewing for a period of time Sunday night by sending thick clouds into the area to vex eclipse watchers.

Lunar eclipse from the Ridge Top Complex, St. George, Utah, September 27, 2015 | Photo courtesy of Sandie Divan, St. George News
Lunar eclipse from the Ridge Top Complex, St. George, Utah, September 27, 2015 | Photo courtesy of Sandie Divan, St. George News

The eclipse was supposed to be excellent viewing as it occurred during a “supermoon,” the point at which the moon is closest to the Earth in its orbit. It also was scheduled to be a “blood moon,” where the atmospheric conditions would be just right to give the rising moon a reddish glow.

But a line of high-level clouds stretching back to central California did not bode well for amateur astronomers and curious onlookers hoping to see the eclipse which occurs once every 18 years. The clouds obscured the rising moon at times, occasionally showing a tantalizing glimpse of the moon.

The next supermoon eclipse will take place in 2033.

While tonight’s eclipse proved to be a disappointment to some viewers, there will be pictures posted at many sites on the web, including NASA’s website which, at its peak Sunday night, reported over 200,000 viewers trying to watch the live feed from around the world.

The moon did peek out through the clouds at times. See our gallery below for more pictures from St. George and NASA’s website.

Click on photo to enlarge it, then use your left-right arrow keys to cycle through the gallery.

Related posts

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @STGnews | @NewsWayman

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2015, all rights reserved.

 

Free News Delivery by Email

Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Enter your email below to start!

5 Comments

  • .... September 28, 2015 at 4:36 am

    Totally Awesome..

  • Common Sense September 28, 2015 at 6:55 am

    It was amazing! So sad all my neighbors were inside watching the old TV. Oh, well maybe in 18 years they could see the next one.

    • .... September 28, 2015 at 4:58 pm

      Yes. they did miss quite an event. It was absolutely worth every minute we spent watching and photographing it.

  • DRT September 28, 2015 at 9:55 am

    Thanks so much for your coverage of this. I’d forgotten all about it.

  • DB September 28, 2015 at 2:48 pm

    I think there have been three eclipses in the last couple years. Photography is sort of my thing and I really blew it when the first eclipse occurred. I caught the one in April and nailed it. Sunday night, I could sit on the back porch and enjoy! Yes, it was a little obscured by a thin layer of high clouds.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.