roughly −39° to −57° declination, and from 23.5h to 2.5h of right
ascension. Named after the mythical phoenix, it was first depicted on a
celestial atlas by Johann Bayer in his 1603 Uranometria. The French
explorer and astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille charted the brighter
stars and gave their Bayer designations in 1756. The brightest star,
Alpha Phoenicis, or Ankaa, is an orange giant of apparent magnitude 2.4.
Nu Phoenicis has a dust disk, while the constellation boasts ten star
systems with known planets, and HE0107-5240, possibly one of the oldest
stars yet discovered. It has around 1/200,000 the metallicity that the
Sun has and hence must have formed very early in the history of the
universe. The recently discovered galaxy clusters El Gordo and the
Phoenix Cluster—located 7.2 and 5.7 billion light years away
respectively, are two of the largest objects in the visible universe.
Phoenix is the radiant of two annual meteor showers: the Phoenicids in
December, and the July Phoenicids.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_(constellation)>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1773:
The hymn "Amazing Grace" was probably first used in a prayer
meeting in Olney, England, without the music familiar to modern
listeners.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazing_Grace>
1800:
Quasi-War: An American convoy of four merchant vessels escorted
by a schooner was attacked by a squadron of armed barges manned by
Haitians.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_of_1_January_1800>
1945:
Second World War: The German Luftwaffe executed Operation
Bodenplatte in an attempt to cripple Allied air forces in the Low
Countries.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Bodenplatte>
1959:
Cuban President Fulgencio Batista fled to the Dominican
Republic as forces under Fidel Castro took control of Havana, marking
the end of the Cuban Revolution.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Revolution>
1983:
The ARPANET changed its core networking protocols from NCP to
TCP/IP, marking the beginning of the Internet as we know it today.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
inception:
The creation or beginning of something; the establishment.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/inception>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
A legend is sung of when England was young, And Knights were
brave and bold. The good King had died, and no one could decide Who was
rightful heir to the Throne. It seemed that the land would be torn by
war, Or saved by a miracle alone — And that miracle appeared in London
town: The Sword in the Stone.
--The Sword in the Stone
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Sword_in_the_Stone>
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