- The Levant (/ləˈvænt/ lə-VANT) is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of West Asia and core territory of the political term Middle East. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is equivalent to Cyprus and a stretch of land bordering the Mediterranean Sea in western Asia: i.e. the historical region of Syria (“Greater Syria”), which includes present-day Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the Palestinian territories and most of Turkey southwest of the middle Euphrates. Its overwhelming characteristic is that it represents the land bridge between Africa and Eurasia. In its widest historical sense, the Levant included all of the Eastern Mediterranean with its islands; that is, it included all of the countries along the Eastern Mediterranean shores, extending from Greece in Southern Europe to Cyrenaica, Eastern Libya in Northern Africa.
- How to find and observe Eta Cas (TOTS#2) (eyesonthesky.com)
Eta Cas is a double star within our own Milky Way galaxy. It is quite close to Earth, at just 19.4 light years, so the photons reaching your eye from the star tonight are under 20 years old. What makes Eta Cassiopeiae so interesting is that the primary star is a G-class star much like our Sun. Our Sun would look similar from Eta Cas if we were peering back it it from there. It also has 97% of the mass, and is 101% of the radius of our Sun. It is much like a twin of our host star in many respects, though it is likely about a billion years older. Here is how to locate it.