- Bismuth is a chemical element with the symbol Bi and atomic number 83. It is a post-transition metal and one of the pnictogens, with chemical properties resembling its lighter group 15 siblings arsenic and antimony. Elemental bismuth occurs naturally, and its sulfide and oxide forms are important commercial ores. The free element is 86% as dense as lead. It is a brittle metal with a silvery-white color when freshly produced. Surface oxidation generally gives samples of the metal a somewhat rosy cast. Further oxidation under heat can give bismuth a vividly iridescent appearance due to thin-film interference. Bismuth is both the most diamagnetic element and one of the least thermally conductive metals known.
- Star Tales - Pavo (ianridpath.com)
The peacock is one of the 12 figures introduced into the southern skies at the end of the 16th century from the observations by the Dutch navigators Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman. Pavo seemingly represents not the common blue, or Indian, peacock commonly seen in parks but its larger, more colourful, and more aggressive cousin, the Java green peacock which Keyser and de Houtman would have encountered in the East Indies. Pavo was first depicted in 1598 on a globe by Petrus Plancius and first appeared in print in 1603 on the Uranometria atlas of Johann Bayer. As visualized by Plancius and Bayer the peacock had a more expansive tail, but its feathers were later trimmed by Lacaille to make room for his own invention Telescopium to the north.