Super Blood Wolf Moon visible over parts of Bay Area amid cloudy skies

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The only total lunar eclipse this year and next came with a supermoon bonus.

On Sunday night, the moon, Earth and sun lined up to create the eclipse, which was visible throughout North and South America, where skies were clear. There won't be another until the year 2021.

It was also the year's first supermoon, when a full moon appears a little bigger and brighter thanks to its slightly closer position.

The Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland was packed with adults and children who wanted to get a glimpse of the Super Blood Wolf Moon.

“We heard that there was going to be a Super Moon and a Lunar Eclipse and my mom got us tickets right before they sold out,” said Jack Simon, a fifth grader from San Francisco.

While it wasn't’ a total washout, clouds and rain made catching a glimpse of the eclipse difficult.

Those at the Chabot Space and Science Center got a chance to watch the sight as it streamed from the Griffin Observatory in southern California.

“We read about it and we wanted to see it,” said Kellee Bachour, a Lafayette resident who brought her son to watch the eclipse.

The entire eclipse took more than three hours. Totality - when the moon's completely bathed in Earth's shadow - lasted an hour. During a total lunar eclipse, the eclipsed, or blood, moon turns red from sunlight scattering off Earth's atmosphere.

“We get to share this with the public and it’s a chance or the public to get their minds out a bit into the universe instead of paying attention to just wants going on around them,” Gerald McKeegan, an Astronomer for the Chabot Space and Science Center.

At the USS Hornet in Alameda, a watch party was set to take place on its deck, but it seemed Mother Nature had other plans for the event to be held on the retired carrier that provides a fitting backdrop to watch a lunar eclipse. 

Now a museum, it recovered the Apollo 11 & 12 lunar landing vessels and their astronauts from the Pacific.

“They were then brought aboard in quarantine outfit and their first steps on board were here on the hanger deck of the Hornet. They were then taken to a mobile quarantine facility because they thought then they might have moon germs,” said Alissa Doyle with the USS Hornet Sea, Air & Space Museum.

Besides the Americas, the entire lunar extravaganza could be observed, weather permitting, all the way across the Atlantic to parts of Europe.

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