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The Southern Cross (scientific name = Crux)
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Date Posted: 24/11/10 18:16:14
In reply to:
Australian Flag at half mast New Zealand miners Flinders Street Station Thursday 25/11/2010
's message, " " on 24/11/10 18:14:15
The Australian Flag
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The Southern Cross (scientific name = Crux) has always fascinated me for some reason. I just think its pretty special having the stars on the Southern Cross represented on the Australian Flag.
Further, I was doing some research about what the names for the Stars on the Australian Flag are and how far away they from us in the Southern Hemisphere. Well I searched a bit on "the net" and could only find the names of three of the stars from the Souther Cross.
One of my good friends from work, Sean Griffin, has put me straight on this subject and filled in the holes for me - thanks Sean.
The following description from the website of Anne Winshop gives a background to the Southern Cross.
The stars of Crux were known to the ancients. Claudius Ptolemy in the Almagest put the stars of Crux into the rear legs of the constellation of the Centaur. The Southern Cross was first identified as a separate constellation by European navigators and astronomers of the sixteenth century. The Italian navigator Andreas Corsali described the constellation as being "so fair and beautiful that no other heavenly sign may be compared to it."
Much later these stars were separated from the Centaur and given the name Crux Australis. We call it the Southern Cross. Its invention as a constellation is often attributed to Royer as of 1679, but it had been the theme of much description for nearly two centuries before him, and we know that it was illustrated by Mollineux of England, in 1592, on his celestial globe, with others of the new southern figures; and Bayer drew it over the hind legs of the Centaur, giving it in his text as modernis crux.
The Cross is composed of four stars alpha, beta, gamma and delta. A fifth star, epsilon, somewhat interferes with the regularity of the figure; and there are forty-nine others visible to the naked eye within the constellation boundaries. Crux lies in the Milky Way.
Anyhow, I flogged a flag from somewhere on the net, and added some names for the stars from the Southern Cross shown. Also I have added their distance, represented in Light Years from Earth.
The Commonwealth Star on the image above, represents the Australian States and Territories.
When the flag was originally designed, each star in the Southern Cross had a different number of points starting from 9 points at the bottom - thence clockwise 8 7 6 around to sEpsilon with five points?. The differing number of points related the the brightness of each star to the naked eye. Whilst Epsilon was to remain at 5 points - the rest were all changed to 7 points at the same time that the Federation/Commonwealth star changed from 6 to 7 to take on board the Australian Territories. The change to 7 points for the rest was purely for economic reasons in the manufacturing process.
The Union Jack represents our link from the UK. The Union Jack in itself represents the combination of the standards of the three patron saints of the United Kingdom, that of St. Andrew, patron saint of Scotland, St. Patrick, of Ireland, and St. George, of England. Together, they form the flag of Great Britain which we call "The Union Jack" - BTW "Jack" means a flag flown at the jack staff on a ship.
The references I used to gather the information above are as follows:
Australian National Flag Association for the information about the Union Jack
The Fixed Stars for information about the background to The Crux
Starnames, Their Lore and Meanding, Richard Hinchley Allen, 1899, Dover Publication, 1963, ISBN 0-486-21079-0
Also, I got a e-mail from Pete Weissmann (Ex 7Sig/72 EW Sqn/JTUM/Army Comp HMAS Coonawarra/DSD/Mat Div etc etc.) about The Crux and how it can be used to find due south. Pete describes it as drawing a line down the long axis of the 'Cross approximately 4 and a half times the length of the axis and then drop a line straight down to the horizon and you've found due South. Very handy on night navigation exercises.
Well I had a bit of a muck around with "Paint Shop Pro" and have put Pete's words in diagram form (see below). Also note that The Crux is not always orientated the same. However, the principal will always of finding due south will always apply.
Also - there is another method to calculate "South" as described by Ian Henderson in the following link.
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