- Star Tales - Cygnus (ianridpath.com)
A popular name for Cygnus is the Northern Cross, and indeed its shape is far larger and more distinctive than the famous Southern Cross. In its cruciform shape the Greeks visualized the long neck, outstretched wings, and stubby tail of a swan flying along the Milky Way, in which it is embedded. Aratus’s description of it as being hazy or misty in parts is no doubt a reference to the Milky Way running through it. The mythographers tell us that the swan is Zeus in disguise, on his way to one of his innumerable love affairs, but his exact quarry is a subject of some disagreement.
- Polynya (Wikipedia)
A polynya (/pəˈlɪnjə/) is an area of open water surrounded by sea ice. It is now used as a geographical term for an area of unfrozen seawater within otherwise contiguous pack ice or fast ice. It is a loanword from the Russian word polynya (полынья; IPA: ), which refers to a natural ice hole and was adopted in the 19th century by polar explorers to describe navigable portions of the sea.