Procyon is the Little Dog Star

The Dog Star, Sirius, is easy to spot because it’s the sky’s brightest star. Procyon – the other Dog Star – is near its brighter brother on the sky’s dome. Source: https://earthsky.org/brightest-stars/procyon-harbringer-of-the-dog-star…

UK To Host Spyware Firm Accused of Aiding Human Rights Abuses

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: The British government is helping a controversial Israeli spyware company to market its surveillance technologies at a secretive trade fair visited by repressive regimes, the Guardian can reveal. The government will host the NSO Group, which sells technology that has allegedly been used by autocratic regimes to spy on the private messages…

Mummies of ancient Egyptian priests found buried with thousands of afterlife ‘servants’

A massive burial ground holding the remains of several high priests of ancient Egypt, along with their assistants, has been discovered in the northern part of the site of Tuna el-Gebel. Source: https://www.livescience.com/mummies-of-high-priests-in-ancient-egypt.html

A winding river of stars called Eridanus

Why search for such a faint constellation? Only because it’s very beautiful. Plus seeing Eridanus can give you a kinship with stargazers from centuries ago. Source: https://earthsky.org/tonight/eridanus-a-river-of-stars…

Image: Hubble sights galaxy’s celestial sequins

This smattering of celestial sequins is a spiral galaxy named NGC 4455, located in the northern constellation of Coma Berenices (Berenice’s Hair). This might sound like an odd name for a constellation—and in fact it is somewhat unusual. It’s the only modern constellation to be named in honor of a real person from history: Queen Berenice II of Egypt. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-01-image-hubble-sights-galaxy-celestial.html…

January’s birthstone is the garnet

Happy birthday January babies!  Your birthstone is the garnet. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/january-birthstone-garnet…