Clouds obscure Valley’s view of blood super moon

High clouds diminished Valley residents’ view of Sunday’s blood super moon, but not their enthusiasm to catch a glimpse of a celestial rarity.

The Downing Planetarium hosted a free telescope viewing of the total lunar eclipse, and about 100 Fresno State students and Valley residents came out to take a look.

Christopher Parry, a third-year Fresno State student minoring in astronomy (his major is physics), set up his telescope on the sidewalk near the planetarium. It was one of three telescopes that were brought out to the planetarium.

Despite the cloud cover, Parry said he was optimistic that he still would be able to catch a glimpse of the red moon.

Marilyn Williams of Clovis said she brought her son, Cooper, a sophomore at Clovis North High School, to the planetarium to watch the eclipse because it is such a rare phenomenon.

Williams said she took a couple of astronomy classes in college, so she was curious to see the eclipse, but she also saw it as a good opportunity to spend time with her son.

In a super moon, the moon’s orbit brings it closer to Earth than usual, making the moon appear larger than normal. The lunar eclipse gave the moon a reddish glow as it passed through Earth’s shadow.

That rare combination hasn’t been seen since 1982. There won’t be another total lunar eclipse until 2018, and there won’t be an eclipse with a super moon again until 2033.

The National Weather Service had warned that high clouds drifting across the Valley likely would obscure the eclipse, but said there might be breaks to let people get a glimpse.

The cloud cover did not appear to do much to cool the Valley on Sunday, but a cooling trend is expected this week. Sunday’s high in Fresno was 93 degrees, but daytime highs should slip back to the more seasonable upper 80s by Tuesday.

This story was originally published September 27, 2015 at 8:04 PM with the headline "Clouds obscure Valley’s view of blood super moon."