- Gig Harbor — Thumbnail History (historylink.org)
Gig Harbor is a city in Pierce County located on a picturesque Puget Sound bay – also called Gig Harbor – across Tacoma Narrows from Tacoma. For centuries, the Twa-Wal-Kut band of the Puyallup Tribe had a longhouse and permanent camp at the head of the harbor. Explorers from the Wilkes Expedition discovered the harbor’s well-hidden opening in 1841 and named it Gig Harbor because they had entered the bay in a small captain’s gig…
- Rigil Kentaurus (stars.astro.illinois.edu)
RIGIL KENTAURUS (Alpha Centauri) with PROXIMA CENTAURI (Alpha Cen C). Among the most famed stars of the entire sky, surely rival in renown to Sirius and Polaris even though not visible to much of the world’s population, is the “foot of the Centaur,” Rigil Kentaurus, “Rigil Kent,” the first star of Centaurus, probably much better known as Alpha Centauri or just Alpha Cen.
- Proxima Centauri (Wikipedia)
Proxima Centauri is a small, low-mass star located 4.2465 light-years (1.3020 pc) away from the Sun in the southern constellation of Centaurus. Its Latin name means the ’nearest [star] of Centaurus’. It was discovered in 1915 by Robert Innes and is the nearest-known star to the Sun. With a quiescent apparent magnitude of 11.13, it is too faint to be seen with the unaided eye. Proxima Centauri is a member of the Alpha Centauri star system, being identified as component Alpha Centauri C, and is 2.18° to the southwest of the Alpha Centauri AB pair. It is currently 12,950 AU (0.2 ly) from AB, which it orbits with a period of about 550,000 years.