How to Take a Solar Eclipse Road Trip

Only those in the Southern Hemisphere get a glimpse

(AP) - A total eclipse of the sun occurs tomorrow, but don't be so quick to take out your special viewing glasses. Unlike recent solar eclipses, this year's complete blotting out of the sun will be visible only in a narrow slice of the Southern Hemisphere. The spectacle begins at sunrise some 1,200 miles northeast of New Zealand. The moon's shadow will sweep across the South Pacific, darkening skies over the Cook Islands, Easter Island, and parts of southern Chile and Argentina. More»

Disneyland Paris is just too obvious

(NEWSER) - Had enough of all those lists of places to see before you die? Then check out 101 Places Not to See Before You Die, which focuses on “overhyped tourist sites" and the like. A sampling, courtesy of USA Today :

• Ibiza: The Spanish party isle is a great place—"for the world’s horniest youth.”
• Disneyland Paris: Need we say more?

Experts tie Odysseus' return to Ithaca with real eclipse in 1178

(NEWSER) - Homer's Odyssey is 2,700 years old, and the events it describes happened centuries earlier. But two scientists claim in a new paper that they've traced one line in the epic poem—a possible reference to an eclipse—to a real astronomical event. Classicists might take issue, writes the New York Times, but the astronomers say that Odysseus' return to Ithaca coincided with a solar eclipse on April 16, 1178 BC. More»

Panama, Finland, and Myanmar top the list

(NEWSER) - If you like cool design, upscale safaris, or a forbidden communist island, the New York Times can recommend 45 locales to visit in 2012. Among them:

• Panama. See the world-famous canal before its expansion, then stay for Panama City's economic boom and Frank Gehry's first design in Latin America—a natural history museum called BioMuseo.

Moon-lovers revel in 'orangy-red' color

(AP) - Moon watchers in the western US, Hawaii, and elsewhere across the globe were treated yesterday to a rare celestial phenomenon: a total lunar eclipse. For 51 minutes starting at 6:06 a.m. PST, the Earth's shadow completely blocked the moon. The moon took on a reddish glow, as some indirect sunlight continued to reach it after passing through the Earth's atmosphere. Since the atmosphere scatters blue light, only red light strikes the moon, giving it a crimson hue. More»