The total historical lunar eclipse illuminates the sky, and shining Mars comes near the Earth

COLUMBUS (WCMH) – Friday night, half of the world was a heavenly feast, visible from Australia and Indonesia to Africa and parts of North America. South, but the view was surrounded by clouds in London

for 1 hour and 43 minutes Friday night. According to EarthSky, it was the longest lunar eclipse since July 16, 2000, which lasted an hour and 46.4 minutes at the end of the last century.

The so-called "blood moon" from July 26 to 27, 2018, refers to the coppery color of the moon in the shadow of the Earth, caused by the refraction of light in our atmosphere to the point where the sun, the Earth and the Moon are aligned. In fact, since the moon, you could see the sun go down behind the Earth.

We have a double treatment this weekend, if the sky is clear enough.

Mars, the red planet, is closer to Earth than at any time since 2003, and appears larger and brighter than Jupiter in the southeast after sunset through much of the night. Mars is in opposition to the sun, which will make the viewing ideal during the Labor Day weekend.

Mars will move closer to Earth Tuesday at a distance of 35.8 million miles, NASA notes, and will reach its peak around midnight.

Earlier this week, the Mars mission of the European Space Agency spotted a lake located 12.4 miles below the South Polar polar ice cap.

The detection of liquid water on the frozen planet, where the surface temperature near the lake ranges from about 14 degrees to -22 degrees Fahrenheit, causing speculation as to the possibility of Martian life.

Water periods were previously evident in the lake beds seen by NASA's rover Curiosity. The planet has cooled to the point that the water has frozen, so for any liquid to exist dissolved salts (brine) that significantly lower the freezing temperature would be present.