Crux Research Paper

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Pages: 3

Almost anyone who has grown up in the southern hemisphere will be aware of the constellation Crux, or as it is better known, the Southern Cross. During late nights beside a camp fire a Scout master will point to it and remind the troop to always look for it, low in the south of the horizon, it guides you home. It is a point of reference, of navigation and a symbol of unity. I myself grew up as a sea scout in South Africa and used to go out on a boat on a calm summer night and I would never be afraid of being lost, so long as I could see a cross burning in the sky. My family is divided by an ocean, one half in Australia and the other is in South Africa, but wherever I visited, if I was ever homesick, I could simply look up to the sky and know the same constellation that glimmered down at me was shining back home. It is for this reason that the Crux is my favourite constellation. While it is the smallest of all the official 88 constellations, and is often overshadowed by Centaurus it is distinctive in the southern hemisphere with bright blue-white stars. For places south of 34 degrees S, it is visible year round, however, tropical/equatorial regions …show more content…
It was the “rediscovered” in the 16th century by European navigators and later identified as a separate constellation by Italian, Andreas Corsali in 1516. Some saw the disappearance of the constellation from the northern hemisphere as significant in symbolizing the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Many non-western mythologies exist such as Australian aboriginals calling it the head of the Emu in the sky, or the possum in the tree, both having significant ties with beliefs of the god of the