Circinus is a small, faint constellation in the southern sky, first defined in 1756 by French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille. Its name is Latin for compass, a tool that draws circles. Its brightest star is the slightly variable Alpha Circini, the brightest rapidly oscillating Ap star in the night sky, with an apparent magnitude of 3.19. AX Circini is a Cepheid variable visible with the unaided eye, and BX Circini is a faint star thought to have been formed from two merged white dwarfs. The sun-like star HD 134060 has two small planets, and another, HD 129445, has a Jupiter-like planet. Supernova SN 185 appeared in Circinus in 185 AD and was recorded by Chinese observers. Two novae were observed in the 20th century. The Milky Way runs through the constellation, featuring prominent objects such as the open cluster NGC 5823 and the planetary nebula NGC 5315 (pictured). The Circinus Galaxy, discovered in 1977, is the closest Seyfert galaxy to the Milky Way. The Alpha Circinids meteor showers, discovered the same year, radiate from this constellation.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circinus
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1792:
Royal Navy Captain George Vancouver claimed Puget Sound in the Pacific Northwest for Great Britain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puget_Sound
1913:
Emily Davison, an activist for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom, was fatally injured when she was trampled by King George V's horse at the Epsom Derby. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Davison
1940:
Second World War: The remaining Allied forces protecting the Dunkirk evacuation surrendered, giving the Germans a tactical victory in the Battle of Dunkirk. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dunkirk
1989:
Following the death of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Assembly of Experts elected Ali Khamenei to be the Supreme Leader of Iran. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Khamenei
1996:
The maiden flight of the Ariane 5 failed, with the rocket self- destructing 37 seconds after launch because of a malfunction in the control software—one of the most expensive computer bugs in history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluster_(spacecraft)
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
gastronomy: 1. The art of preparing and eating good food. 2. The study of the relationship between food and culture. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gastronomy
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
One of life's best coping mechanisms is to know the difference between an inconvenience and a problem. If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire, then you've got a problem. Everything else is an inconvenience. Life is inconvenient. Life is lumpy. A lump in the oatmeal, a lump in the throat and a lump in the breast are not the same kind of lump. One needs to learn the difference. --Robert Fulghum https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Fulghum