Sky Club meets at Meramec to watch eclipse
By: KATIE LIECHT
Art & Life Editor
On Sunday Sept. 27, 2015, Meramec’s Sky Club held a special viewing event for the supermoon lunar eclipse held in parking lot H. Astronomy and Meteorology Professor Joe Schneider and Astronomy Professor Rick Menendez helped host the event, equipped with a large‑scale telescope for the viewing of the moon along with Saturn and various constellations.
The type of lunar eclipse displayed Sunday had not lit up our night sky since 1982 and will not return until 2033.
A supermoon is when the moon is in its closest orbit to earth, making the moon look larger in the night sky.
A lunar eclipse is when the earth is directly between the sun and the moon. The moon stays partially lit, and the sunrays pass around the curve of the earth, giving the moon a reddish glow. This reddish glow is also referred to as a blood moon.
The view of the red supermoon was unfortunately blocked by thick cloud coverage. At around 8 p.m., the clouds broke for a mere moment to display a glow, which was most certainly from the eclipse. For a brief time, the audience shielded their eyes from the glow of the parking lot lights to get a better view, but still, no such luck of seeing the moon.
Although the view wasn’t spectacular, the Sky Club along with some of Meramec’s students still seemed to enjoy the atmosphere by laughing and attempting to see the eclipse through the scarce break in the clouds. The view in the St. Louis area cleared up at about 10:30 p.m. Although the reddish color was not apparent anymore, the moon still looked beautiful going through it’s different stages of the eclipse.
