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

_______________________________ 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

_____________________________ 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

___________________________ 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