BBC NEWS ONLINE: Lunar eclipse: Skygazers await century's longest 'blood moon'

Description

"This is actually almost as long as a lunar eclipse could be," Prof Tim O'Brien, an astrophysicist at University of Manchester, explained.

Because the Moon is far away from Earth relatively speaking - its orbit is an ellipse, so it moves closer and further and looks larger and smaller from Earth.

"Mars will look like this beautiful bright red star just below the Moon," said Prof O'Brien.

"Every couple of years or so, the Earth overtakes Mars on the inside as it orbits the Sun, so Mars is closest to us.

"And because of the elliptical shape of the orbit, it's even closer than normal; it really is a great time to spot Mars."