Did you know... that Table Mountain is the only terrestial feature on Earth to give its name to a star constellation

Cape Town's Table Mountain is the only terrestial feature on Earth to give its name to a star constellation. The French astronomer Nicolas de Lacaille (1713-1763) named the constellation "mensa" (Latin for table) after the mountain, which he visited in the mid eighteenth century (1754). The mensa constellation can only be seen in the Southern Hemisphere and is essentially unobservable from the Northern Hemisphere. "Mensa", which was orignally named Mons Mensae by the french astronomer and only got shortened to "Mensa" by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) when it adopted the 88 modern constellations recognised today, is located below Orion at about 6 hours right ascension and 80° south in declination (south polar region). The constellation contains some of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite of the Milky Way Galaxy and one of the nearest galaxies to Earth, at a distance of 160,000 light-years.

Video: The amazing night sky over the Kalahari desert

The music might be a little too 90ies, but the views in the video are simply amazing as it shows you the incredible night sky over the Kalahari desert in Namibia shot in May 2010.



The video was made at Tivoli Southern Sky Guest Farm, a guest farm specialised in "astro tourism". The farm is situated in a very flat environment about 180 km southeast of Windhoek and provides their guests with all kinds of astronomic equipment, such as telescopes from 80-500mm. It seems to be the perfect spot for all star-gazers...