- The Child and the Shadow (johnirons.com)
Once upon a time, says Hans Christian Andersen, there was a kind, shy, learned young man from the North, who came south to visit the hot countries, where the sun shines fiercely and all shadows are very black.
- Beta Boötis (Wikipedia)
Beta Boötis, Latinized from β Boötis, and also named Nekkar /ˈnɛkɑːr/, is a star in the northern constellation of Boötes. It has an apparent visual magnitude of 3.5, making it one of the brighter members of the constellation. In the modern constellation, it marks the head of Boötes the herdsman. Based upon parallax measurements obtained by the Gaia spacecraft, this star is approximately 235 light-years (72 parsecs) from the Sun. The magnitude of the star is reduced by 0.06 from extinction caused by intervening gas and dust.