Moon

Millions of Asians watched as a rare "ring of fire" eclipse crossed their skies early Monday. The annular eclipse, in which the moon passes in front of the sun leaving only a golden ring around its edges, was visible to wide areas across the continent. It will move across the Pacific and also be seen in parts of the western United States. In Japan, "eclipse tours" were arranged at schools and parks, on pleasure boats and even private airplanes. Similar events were held in China and Taiwan as well.

It's been a long, strange trip for what appears to be several tiny chips of lunar rock that found their way into a casino mogul's hands after being collected by the first men on the moon. If they're real, they were plucked from the lunar surface by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, given by then-President Richard Nixon to former Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza Garcia, pilfered by a Costa Rican mercenary soldier-turned Contra rebel, traded to a Baptist missionary for unknown items, then sold to a flamboyant Las Vegas casino mogul who squirreled them away in in a safety deposit box. ...

‘Moon’’ might be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for fans of Sam Rockwell. Will there ever be more of him in one movie than there is here? This is partly a matter of time (he’s in the whole movie). But it’s also a matter of volume: There’s more than one of him. Rockwell in duplicate is the most interesting thing about “Moon,’’ which, sadly, is not a command. Generically, it’s a place; specifically, it’s where Sam Bell, the astronaut Rockwell plays, is two weeks away from the end of a three-year stint mining a new energy source for Earth.

TOKYO - Millions of people in parts of East Asia and the western United States got to see a rare "ring of fire" eclipse of the sun. Early risers in southern China, northern Taiwan, and southeastern Japan got the best view about dawn Monday. The eclipse moved across the Pacific, with the western United States viewing the tail end Sunday evening. The event, called an annular solar eclipse, occurs when the moon slides across the sun, blocking all but a blazing halo of light.

Sunrises and sunsets often dazzle, but they'll have a special ring to them in a few days for people in the western United States and eastern Asia: The moon will slide across the sun, blocking everything but a blazing halo of light. It's been almost two decades since a "ring of fire" eclipse was visible in the continental United States. To celebrate the end of that drought, nearly three dozen national parks in the path of the eclipse will host viewing parties. The solar spectacle is first seen in eastern Asia at dawn Monday, local time.

LONDON -- A dark red shadow crept across the moon yesterday during the first total lunar eclipse in nearly three years, thrilling stargazers and astronomers around the world. Partly visible on every continent, residents of Europe, Africa, and the Middle East had the best view of the phenomenon, weather permitting. About a dozen people gathered at the Croydon Observatory in southeast London to watch the start of the eclipse. "It's starting to go!" said Alex Gikas, 8, a Cub Scout who was studying for his astronomy badge.

. TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON Directed by: Michael Bay Written by: Ehren Kruger Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich, Patrick Dempsey, Josh Duhamel, and John Turturro At: Boston Common, Fenway, suburbs Running time: 151 minutes Rated: PG-13 (intense prolonged sequences of sci-fi action violence, mayhem and destruction, and for language, some sexuality and...

As if there weren't enough parallels to make between the 2011 Boston Bruins and the 2004 Red Sox, here's one more. On the night the Sox won their first World Series in 86 years, it was done beneath a full moon and lunar eclipse. Well, tonight, as the Bruins are taking on the Vancouver Canucks in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final...yup, there will be a full moon and lunar eclipse. OK, so the eclipse will only be viewable in South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. Still, the frequency of both a lunar eclipse and a full moon happening simultaneously is only ...

WASHINGTON — The moon may be shrinking. Not to worry though, lovers and crooners, it won’t be disappearing any time soon. New research indicates there are cracks in the moon’s crust that have formed as the interior has cooled and shrunk over the past billion years or so. That means the surface has shrunk, too, though no one would notice just by gazing at it. Scientists have identified 14 landforms called lobate scarps scattered over...

CHARLESTOWN -- Les Coleman and the night sky go back a long way . "As a 7-year-old boy, I saw Saturn through my neighbor's telescope and I was hooked," he recalls. Two years later he bought a box of military surplus lenses and cobbled together his first telescope with a mailing tube as the barrel and a tomato paste can for an eyepiece. "That first night I saw four moons of Jupiter through my own telescope. " Six decades have passed since his initiation, and Coleman's enthusiasm hasn't waned.

Sunrises and sunsets often dazzle, but they'll have a special ring to them in a few days for people in the western United States and eastern Asia: The moon will slide across the sun, blocking everything but a blazing halo of light. It's been almost two decades since a "ring of fire" eclipse was visible in the continental United States. To celebrate the end of that drought, nearly three dozen national parks in the path of the eclipse will host viewing parties. The solar spectacle is first seen in eastern Asia at dawn Monday, local time.

BUFFALO, Texas - A former NASA investigator is on a quest to identify and perhaps recover rare treasure brought to Earth and then lost: tiny portions of moon rocks. "We're educating the states and countries of the world about how much they're worth on the black market, and we need to increase the security in museums and put them back on display," Joe Gutheinz said. The rock samples were collected by the dozen American astronauts who walked on the moon between 1969-1972. US states, territories, the UN, and foreign governments received them as gifts.

The dark suit and tie Joe Gutheinz wore set him apart from other customers inside a Texas eatery where the usual attire is jeans and cowboy hats. An appetite for down-home cooking wasn't what brought the former NASA investigator to the Pitt Grill recently. He was on a quest to identify and maybe recover some of the rarest treasure brought to Earth and then lost: moon rocks. "We're educating the states and countries of the world about how much they're worth on the black market and we need to increase the security in museums and need to put them back on display," Gutheinz said.

Archaeologists have found a small room in Mayan ruins where royal scribes apparently used walls like a blackboard to keep track of astronomical records and the society's intricate calendar some 1,200 years ago. The walls reveal the oldest known astronomical tables from the Maya. Scientists already knew they must have been keeping such records at that time, but until now the oldest known examples dated from about 600 years later. Astronomical records were key to the Mayan calendar, which has gotten some attention recently because of doomsday...

The biggest and brightest full moon of the year arrived Saturday night as our celestial neighbor passes closer to Earth than usual. But don't expect any "must-have-been-a-full-moon" spike in crime or crazy behavior. That's just folklore. Saturday's event is a "supermoon," the closest and therefore the biggest and brightest full moon of the year. At 11:34 p.m., the moon will be about 221,802 miles from Earth. That's about 15,300 miles closer than average. That proximity will make the moon appear about 14 percent bigger than it would if the moon were at...

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived in India's capital on Thursday to meet with government officials and business leaders. Ban was scheduled to meet with Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad later Thursday. On Friday, he is to hold talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna and others. On Saturday, the U.N. chief is to fly to Mumbai, India's financial capital. No details of Ban's agenda were immediately available. News reports said he would discuss regional and global issues.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Four decades after landing men on the moon, NASA is returning to Earth's orbiting companion, this time with a set of robotic twins that will measure lunar gravity while chasing one another in circles. By creating the most precise lunar gravity map ever, scientists hope to figure out what is beneath the surface, all the way to the core. The orbiting probes also will help pinpoint the best landing sites for future explorers, whether human or mechanical. Near-identical twins Grail-A and Grail-B are due to blast off Thursday aboard an unmanned rocket.