Tucana is a constellation of stars in the southern sky, named after the
toucan, a South American bird. It is one of twelve constellations
conceived in the late sixteenth century by Petrus Plancius from the
observations of Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman. It
first appeared on a 1598 celestial globe by Plancius and Jodocus Hondius
in Amsterdam and was depicted in Johann Bayer's star atlas Uranometria
of 1603. French explorer and astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille gave
its stars Bayer designations in 1756. Tucana is not a prominent
constellation as all of its stars are third magnitude or fainter; the
brightest is Alpha Tucanae with an apparent visual magnitude of 2.87.
Beta Tucanae is a star system with six member stars, while Kappa is a
quadruple system. Five star systems have been found to have exoplanets
to date. The constellation contains most of the Small Magellanic Cloud,
along with 47 Tucanae (pictured), one of the brightest globular clusters
in the sky. The constellations Tucana, Grus, Phoenix and Pavo are
collectively known as the "Southern Birds".
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tucana>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1098:
First Crusade: The first Siege of Antioch ended as Crusader
forces captured the city, but the Seljuk Turks would later start a
second siege of Antioch a few days later.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Antioch>
1848:
As part of the Pan-Slavism movement, the Prague Slavic Congress
began in Prague, the first of several times that voices from all Slav
populations of Europe were heard in one place.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_Slavic_Congress,_1848>
1886:
Grover Cleveland became the only U.S. President to marry in the
White House when he wed Frances Folsom.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Folsom_Cleveland_Preston>
1910:
Charles Rolls, co-founder of Rolls-Royce, became the first man
to make a non-stop double crossing of the English Channel by plane.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Rolls>
1995:
United States Air Force Captain Scott O'Grady was shot down by
a Bosnian Serb Army SA-6 surface-to-air missile while patrolling the
NATO no-fly zone over Bosnia in an F-16, but he was able to eject safely
and was then rescued six days later.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_O%27Grady>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
superannuate:
1. (transitive) To retire or put out of use due to age.
2. (intransitive) To become obsolete or antiquated.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/superannuate>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
To find beauty in ugliness is the province of the poet.
--Thomas Hardy
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Hardy>