THE SOUTHERN CROSS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7296, 8 January 1902, Page 2

THE SOUTHERN CROSS.

SOME INTERESTING PARTICULARS. (By MARY PROCTOR.) " Whene'er those eouthern seas I sail, I find my eyes tnertintftive turning Where, pure and nuurvelkyasly pale, Four sacred stars are brigtray burning." A halo of romance has woven itself about the stars of the Southern Crossone of the most picturesque objects in ther* southern skies.. At one time these stars formed part of the constellation named the " Centaur," which was once' included under that called "Argo," tha Great Ship; but toward the end of the eighteenth century tlie Southern Cross became a constellation .on its fryrai account. Nevertheless, its resemblance (o a cross must have "been observed long before this time, since an Arabian globe has been found on jvhich an outline of a cross is marked about this group of stars.' ','■..-.., The Southern Cross has, ., four, stars named Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta; while a little south of Delta js the small red star Epsilon, which rather mars the outline of the cross-Shaped figure. Alpha an<^ Gamma form the longer bar of the cross, Gamma being at the top of Lhe cross and Alpha at the foot. Beta and Delta form the cross-piece, Beta being to the right, and Delta to the left. Beta is a white star, and when observed through a telescope, a rosy red star can be seen in the same field of view, forming a most charming contrast to Beta Delta is a white star, and inferior in brightness to. the rest... 'AlpEaj ab the foot of the cross, is a, , very bright star of a dazzling white hue; and spine missionaries who were sent by Louis XIV. to Siam in 1685, while devoting some of their leisure time to the contemplation of the glories of the southern skies, discovered that Alpha, in th© Southern Cross, was a double star, the two stars' being very nearly equal in size and colour. Gamma is a "red star, and not quite as bright as Alpha, which is the leading brilliant in the Southern Cross. The long bar of the cross points nearly to the south pole, the situation of which in the heavens is nob marked by any brilliant star, but which is aboub four and a half cross lengths frojm 'the foot of the cross. For thi3 reason Alpha and Gamma are sometimes called the " pointers." In fact, the Southern Cross may be looked upon as the hour-hand of a great clock, which goes round once in a I twenty-four hours, moving in the same direction as the hands of a clock, unlike our Great Bear or Dipper, in the north' em heavens, which appears to go round the northern pole in the direction contrary to the hands of a clock. This iV because tbe observer's face, when lookup at the northern pole, is turned in a direc tion contrary to the face of an observe in the southern hemisphere turned towar^ the southern pole. The first settlers in the Spanish possessions in tropical America used tbe stars of the' Southern. Cross as a celestial clock, 1 calculating the hours from its inclined' or erect^ position ; and in this way it served as a timepiece, though it gained very regularly nearly four minutes a day. No other group of stars in the southern skies makes so good a clock. Humboldt,, in his "Travels," remarks: "How often have we heard our guides exclaim in the savannas of Venezuela, or in the desert extending from Lima to Truxillo, 'Midnight is past; tlie cross begins to bend!'" Humboldt saw the Southern Cross fcr the first time in the tropics ; and he described it as being greatly inclined, and appearing from time to time between the clouds, the centre of which, furrowed by. occasional flashes of lightning, reflected a silvery light. The pleasure he felt on discovering the Southern Cross was shared by all the sailors who £ad visited £he colonies. In the solitude of the seas, the lone seaman, who _>aLI the might • Sails astonii'steid eanong sbairs hails a star as a friend from whom he has long been separated. The Portuguese and the Spaniards are especially interested . in the stars of "the Southern Cross, for they attach a religious sentiment to a constellation the form of which recalls the sign of faith planted by their ancestors- in the deserts of the New World. Near the Southern Cross is an almost vacant patch of sky, which was named the "Coal-sack" by early navigators. In the Coal-sack only one very small star can be seen with tho unaided eye, but tho telescope reveals many stars in that seemingly deserted region, proving that the striking blackness is due simply to the effect of' contrast with the brilliant ground surrounding it on all sides. On the northern edge of the Coal -sack is a star of ruddy hue, known as Kappa-, but too small to be seen with the unaided eye. Even a« small telescope fails to mak* one realise the splendour of this star ; but when. Sir John Herschel tiirned his twenty-foot reflector in its direction he was surprised to find Kappa the centre of a cluster of over one hundred stars of all the colours -of the rainbow, contrastino- wonderfully with one another. He compared it to" a superb piece of fancy jewellery, while Flammarion describes it as '' a casket of glittering gems."