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Johann Doppelmayr's celestial chart of Pavo, c. 1742
Johann Doppelmayr's celestial chart of Pavo, c. 1742

Pavo is a constellation in the southern sky whose name is Latin for "peacock". It is one of twelve constellations established by Petrus Plancius from the observations of Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman. First appearing on a 35 cm (14 in) diameter celestial globe published in 1598 in Amsterdam by Plancius and Jodocus Hondius, it was depicted in Johann Bayer's star atlas Uranometria of 1603. Pavo's brightest member, Alpha Pavonis, is also known as Peacock and appears as a 1.91-magnitude blue-white star, but is actually a spectroscopic binary. Delta Pavonis is a Sun-like star some 19.9 light years distant. Six of the star systems in Pavo have been found to host planets, including HD 181433 with a super-Earth, and HD 172555 with evidence of a major interplanetary collision in the past few thousand years. Pavo also contains NGC 6752, the fourth-brightest globular cluster in the sky, and NGC 6744, a spiral galaxy which closely resembles our Milky Way, with a diameter twice as wide. (Full article...)

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Jenny Geddes protesting the 1637 Scottish Prayer Book
Jenny Geddes protesting the 1637 Scottish Prayer Book

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July 23: Birthday of Haile Selassie (Rastafari)

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Scarlet robin

The scarlet robin (Petroica boodang) is a red-breasted passerine bird in the Petroicidae family (the Australasian robins). The species is found on continental Australia and its offshore islands, including Tasmania. With a length of 12 to 13.5 cm and a mass between 12 and 14 g, the male scarlet robin is black on the head, back and tail, and has a white belly and scarlet breast, with black and white wings. The female matches the male in pattern, but is duller, with brown plumage instead of black and a much more washed-out red on the breast. The scarlet robin feeds on arthropods, such as insects and spiders, adjusting its foraging behaviour seasonally – it feeds mostly on the ground during the winter, but during the summer and spring prey is more commonly snatched from bark and foliage. It is a territorial and monogamous species and defends its nesting territories both from others of the same species and from pairs of the related flame robin. This female scarlet robin was photographed in Blackheath, New South Wales, Australia.

Photograph credit: JJ Harrison

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