THE MANY OTHER IDENTITIES OF THE SOUTHERN CROSS
(and other constellations)
The Southern Cross. It's on the Australian flag. And on the flags of other southern nations. What else but a cross could these stars possibly represent?
Well, if you lived in the Southern Hemisphere before the arrival of Christian missionaries then you would have seen these stars as something else entirely. Even within South Australia there's at least 3 different indigenous interpretations of these stars. Plus more interpretations we've learned from other parts of Australia, southern Africa, South America, south-east Asia, and from various Pacific islands. None of which involve crosses. But they will all inspire your students to see this part of the night sky, at least, from other cultural viewpoints.
Our multicultural night sky tours introduce some of the many other non-European traditional constellations, stars, planets and night sky stories up there too. For example on a recent tour we showed our guests the Deer, the Five Emperors, the Lion's Eyes, Brhaspati's moons, Wilto's Claws, the stars that inspired the name of a Japanese car manufacturer, and many others.
We also explore aspects of modern astronomy and space exploration. For example on that same tour we:
- Discovered why telescopes on Earth can't see anything that's ever landed on the Moon.
- Looked at a nearby spiral galaxy with a large telescope, and learned about the pioneering woman astronomer who discovered it.
- Watched satellites passing over, meteors burning up, and a planet pretending to be a UFO.
- Gazed into the glowing birthplaces of newborn stars.
- Saw light that's as ancient as the dinosaurs, from galaxies far far away.
- Learned how to find south, east & west, using the stars; and why some stars never set (or rise).
- Admired a cluster of 4 million stars. Although nobody was able to count them all.
- Tried some astrophotography with our mobile phones.
- Saw one of the reddest stars in the entire sky, and learned why stars have different colours.
Our presentation, like the night sky itself, varies with the seasons and with what's visible on the night; so we work with teachers to deliver a presentation most suited to their students' learning needs and interests.
All of our equipment is mobile and we've been bringing our large telescopes & laser pointer to schools and school camps in South Australia since 2016.
