The Southern Cross

From the photographer: “The most famous constellation in the southern sky is not one of the 48 classical constellations of antiquity. At the time of Ancient Greece, the constellation could still be seen from the Mediterranean region, but was assigned to the Centaur. Due to the precessional movement of the Earth / the Earth’s axis, the visible position of the constellation shifted slightly to the south. When European sailors travelled through the southern seas in the 16th century, they became aware of the constellation again, seeing in it the cross of the Christian faith. The cross also served them for orientation, as the vertical axis points to the southern celestial pole and acts ‘like a clock hand’. Three of the four stars of the small constellation are first magnitude, the southernmost star α is called Acrux. With a declination of -63° 06′, it is not visible because it is 1°24′ below the mathematical horizon. In addition, the smallest of the Canary Islands, El Hierro, is ‘in the way’ when viewed from the observation point on the crater rim. If you were able to take a higher position, the entire constellation would be visible under the most favourable conditions.”