Americans took to their yards, streets and the back roads Sunday night to watch a lunar eclipse and blood moon, a rare event.

It was the first time both occurred simultaneously since 1982, and the supermoon eclipse lasted a little over an hour.

With clouds over much of North Mississippi last night, the moon created a united effort among friends, neighbors and social  media followers.

While some people patiently wandered their yards like billy goats watching the skies, some were checking their phones for a  text from a neighbor or friend saying the clouds had temporarily cleared and then ran to the streets. Facebook was filled with photos of the moon from iPhones and there was an event just for the eclipse people could check in to. Watching the moon became both a team effort and a memory that can last a lifetime, or at least until the next time it comes around, which will be in 2033.

There have only been five supermoon eclipses since 1900. They were in 1910, 1928, 1946, 1964 and 1982.

A supermoon occurs when a new or full moon is closest to the Earth, which means it is about 31,000 miles closer to Earth  than when it is at its farthest away. That makes it 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter in the sky than for other full moons, scientists say.

In contrast of excited scientists were some religious groups which said Sunday’s event would induce mayhem and possibly  the apocalypse, but we are still here today so far.

In today’s Internet-savvy age, for those people who could not make it outdoors for whatever reason, there were several live feeds where people had cameras on the skies and were broadcasting it on the Internet. News stations stayed on it with  plenty of pre-moon and ongoing moon coverage, and people posted photos everywhere. It’s nice to know that today’s  technology age ensured this supermoon was documented for the history books and helped people know it was going on.

More importantly, it’s nice to know people can still put down their phones and get out in Mother Nature to view a  phenomenon.