The Southern Cross

Making a line drawing with stars, what a rich imagination ancient people have! When we look up the night sky, dozens of drawings are scattered over there.
Long time ago when I heard the name of constellation 'The Hair' (in Japanese translation), I thought it's a kind of ultimate imagination. Ancient people made a star order as a hair.
But I checked it with a star chart later. The constellation was not described as a hair but something like a hair piece. I was really disappointed with that. According to a back story of the constellation, it's not a hair piece either. The hair of Berenice II, a queen of Ptolemaios III. Even though it's the hair, instead of a hair, the ancient people made the drawing with just 7 bright stars or 8. I must say the imagination is rich enough.

However I believe there are not so many people who look up the night sky and say. "Wow, I found the Berenice's hair". The constellation is so minor. So which is the major one? Let's see ... the Scorpion, for example. My zodiac sign. (LoL)
And I hadn't seen the real constellation in my life nevertheless I'm a Scorpion. 'My be I had not had a chance for watching open south sky'  I thought so. But actually it should be seen in summer. After all, I had not been in the suitable environment for watching stars.
But at last, I saw the perfect constellation in a small island of Indonesia. When I stood on the beach, I saw a huge scorpion with reddish light of the Antares in South night sky. It's an impressive scorpion indeed.

Travelling to Samoa was the first time for me to step into the southern hemisphere. So what's a famous constellation in the south hemisphere? Yeah, must be the Southern Cross.
The Southern Cross is depicted on some national flags in the southern hemisphere. Australia, New Zealand, Brazil ... and Samoa. So at least, I knew the order of the constellation.
A night continuous rain cleared up, I was on the terrace of the beach side bungalow. When I moved my eyes up from the dark sea, I found the order of stars accidentally. I had really bad eye sight, although it must be better to find the constellations. Because I can't see too many stars.

My first encounter to Southern Cross was in such an accident. It intensified my impression. Keeping the hand away from the trembling, I took a shutter with hand held. Sorry for the rough shot. But it's more close to what I saw in the night.
There are two pointers in the photo, Alfa and Beta of the Centaur. Above them you see a small cross. Regard a long line as a vertical, there can be a dark nebula which is called Coalsack in left bottom corner although I can't identify. On the other side, you see a orange colored star in the right bottom corner. It's Epsilon which is also depicted on the national flags with the Sothern Cross pattern.

The cross was hang up high above on the sky dome, and looked far more sacred than I had expected.