- Moldova (/mɒlˈdoʊvə/ mol-DOH-və, sometimes UK: /ˈmɒldəvə/ MOL-də-və; Romanian pronunciation: [molˈdova]), officially the Republic of Moldova (Romanian: Republica Moldova), is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, on the northeastern corner of the Balkans. The country spans a total of 33,483 km2 (13,067 sq mi) and has a population of approximately 2.5 million as of January 2023. Moldova is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The unrecognised breakaway state of Transnistria lies across the Dniester river on the country’s eastern border with Ukraine. Moldova is a unitary parliamentary representative democratic republic with its capital in Chișinău, the country’s largest city and main cultural and commercial centre.
- Beta Doradus (stars.astro.illinois.edu)
BETA DOR (Beta Doradus). Among the most important of all stars are the Cepheid variables, named after the prototype, Delta Cephei. Many of them dot the naked- eye starry sky, their number including Eta Aquilae, Zeta Geminorum (Mekbuda), even Polaris, the brightest of them (though Polaris’s variations are too small to be witnessed by eye). Here is another bright one, fourth magnitude (averaging 3.76) Beta Doradus, the second brightest star (after Alpha) in the modern southern constellation Dorado, the Swordfish.
