Home & Southern Cross

Having told of the sojourn in my home city of Melbourne it will not be repeated. Is this still Australia!!!

It was good to be back home where I could view the Southern Cross with no cloud, nor smog interference.

The Southern Cross contains four bright stars so situated that they depict the extremities of a Roman cross.

Thousands of years ago the four stars were an object of reverence in the Near East.

Oddly enough, in the Biblical days they were just visible at the horizon.

It was last seen from the latitude of Jerusalem at the time of the crucifixion of Christ. It is no longer visible at latitudes north of 25
degrees.


The constellation was again discovered in the early sixteenth century by European navigators. Vasco da Gama on his famed voyage around the Cape of Good Hope in 1497 was impressed by the sight of what appeared to be a new group of southern stars which we know today as The Southern Cross
However, Vespucci, following his 3rd voyage in 1501 was insistant that he was the first European to view it and named it Mandorla.

It is curious to note that Dante has some reference to it in "Divine Comedy". It is almost certain he could never have viewed from Italy and so it would appear that he had heard of it.

There are no Greek or Roman myths or legends associated with it.



But the Australian Aborigines have many stories to tell using the stars of the Southern Cross.

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