- World Report 2024: Sudan (hrw.org)
On April 15, 2023, fighting broke out in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), an independent military force, and quickly spread across the country. This followed months of mounting tensions between SAF leader General Abdelfattah al-Burhan and RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (“Hemedti”) over the integration of the RSF into the SAF. Burhan and Hemedti had jointly carried out a military coup against the transitional government in October 2021.
- Star Tales - Octans (ianridpath.com)
Octans was one of 14 new southern constellations introduced in the 1750s by the French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille. It represents a navigational instrument known as a reflecting octant, invented in 1730 by the Englishman John Hadley (1682–1744). Lacaille originally named it l’Octans de Reflexion on his chart published in 1756, but changed this simply to Octans on the second edition of 1763 on which he Latinized the names of the constellations.
- Octans (Wikipedia)
Octans (/ˈɒktænz/) is a faint constellation located in the deep Southern Sky. Its name is Latin for the eighth part of a circle, but it is named after the octant, a navigational instrument. Devised by French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in 1752, Octans remains one of the 88 modern constellations. The southern celestial pole is located within the boundaries of Octans.
