I'm planning on viewing the ancient Greek super-constellation Argo on my cruise trip down to the western Caribbean, at a latitude where hopefully I can capture the full scope of these interesting star patterns of which I knew from childhood but never had the opportunity to just go out and observe. Because Argo was so big, it was later divided into the "official", smaller constellations of Puppis (the Deck), Carina (the Keel) and Vela (the Sails). My only real connection with Argo has been with Canopus, my favorite star of the night sky and the second brightest after Sirius. There are also four stars on the above map, two in Vela and two in Carina, that if you looked at them a certain way you could make out a cross...it's the "False Cross" that for centuries has fooled observers looking for the Southern Cross, which is far east of Argo and constitutes the constellation Crux. My success in observing Argo will depend, of course, on the cooperation of the weather: fog and overcast skies, or annoying shipboard lights for that matter, could present issues...but I'm remaining optimistic...
My first real conversation with my now husband, David, was when I asked him to point out to me the Southern Cross whilst I was on an Australian cruise. Little did I know that a mere 17 months later I would marry him and be living in Australia. To quote John Lennon's Beautiful Boy, "Life is what happens to you when you're busy making other plans".
ReplyDeleteI love that quote. I'm writing this on the Saturday after returning from our cruise...sadly, the clouds seemed to keep me from observing old Argo in any detail although I did make out some of the brighter stars in it early on as we were "sailing" south. Maybe we'll just have to figure out a way to get ourselves "down under" to finally get a clear view of the southern night sky.
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