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Posted: 20 Jan 2022

Taken: 20 Jan 2022

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Magellanic Clouds

Magellanic Clouds
They’re visible in the southern sky, and for centuries people have gazed up at them. They’re named after the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, in our current times.


The Magellanic Clouds have been known since ancient times to indigenous peoples across South America and Africa, and from the first millennium in Western Asia. The first preserved mention of the Large Magellanic Cloud is believed to be in petroglyphs and rock drawings found in Chile. They may be the objects mentioned by the polymath Ibn Qutaybah (d. 889 CE), in his book on Al-Anwā̵’ (the stations of the Moon in pre-Islamic Arabian culture):

"وأسفل من سهيل قدما سهيل . وفى مجرى قدمى سهيل، من خلفهما كواكب زهر كبار، لا ترى بالعراق، يسميها أهل تهامة الأعبار

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magellanic_Clouds
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 Dinesh
Dinesh club
Some twenty-five degrees from the south celestial pole, two luminous galaxies, easily visible to the naked eye, span the night sky. These companions of the Milky Way are the Magellanic Clouds, trails of glory which arouse awe, given the heavens grandeur, and testify to the immensity of the universe. So high are they that their distance can be grasped only by a mighty sweep of the imagination. A ray of starlight from there, travelling in speed of over 186,000 miles per second -- six trillion miles a year -- can-not become visible on Earth for 80,000 years. Thus the illumination which was leaving the Clouds when Magellan emerged from his Strait and crossed the Pacific will not reach this planet for another 795 centuries, a cosmic perspective which would have pleased him. xii

. . . Of all the tributes to him, (Megellan) therefore, the Magellanic Clouds are the most appropriate. Like them, his memory shines down upon the world his voyage opened, illuminating it from infinity to eternity. xiv

2 years ago. Edited 2 years ago.