Those who tried to view the so-called super blue blood moon in San Antonio were thwarted in the early morning hours by thick fog in all directions.
A lunar eclipse reached totality at 6:51 a.m. Wednesday while the moon was at its closest point to the Earth during the second full moon in a single month.
The morning fog led Bryan Tobias, who manages the Curtis Vaughan Jr. Observatory at the University of Texas at San Antonio, to keep the observatory closed.
“Horrible,” he said via text message when asked about the viewing conditions before 6 a.m.. “Go back to bed!”
Supermoons are fairly common, occurring around once a month when the moon enters what is called its perigee, when it’s closest to the Earth. Blue and blood moons happen less frequently. The last total lunar eclipse visible in parts of the United States happened in 2015, as did the most recent blue moon.
Not for 150 years have all three been simultaneously visible from the Americas, according to EarthSky.org.
John “Whizzo” Whisenhunt, the “resident moon guy” with the San Antonio League of Sidewalk Astronomers, suggested the whole thing may have been a bit overhyped.
“If we weren’t publicizing this, I don’t know that the average person would notice a difference,” he said.
But then again, “we tend to be a little more jaded than the general community,” he said.
What would it take to get Whisenhunt most excited about the moon?
“People visiting it again,” he said. “That would do it for me.”
We’ll all get another chance to see a lunar eclipse in about a year. The next one visible from the U.S. will be Jan. 21, 2019, according to NASA.
Le boooooo.