Cruz del Sur

Crux del Sur, Crux, Cru, or commonly known as the Southern Cross. During our trip to South America i was constantly asking locals to show me the Cru on the Southern Sky, because i forgot where to look for this constellation, however everytime i asked we couldn’t find it or we were on the wrong side of the hill, or trees where hiding the night sky. Then i didn’t know that i looked at it many times, i even took photo of the Crux del Sur, unfortunately i was able to find at home, after long investigation and recognizing the constallation comparing with the installed World Telescope.
What’s so special about this Cross ? It’s special constellation which is only visible from the southern hemisphere, at any time of year. It’s impossible to see that Cross from Europe.

What’s interesting because of that that it’s only visible from the southern hemisphere in the beginning in the colonial age, Crux became used as a national symbol by several southern nations. The brightest stars of Crux appear on the flags of Australia, Brazil, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and Samoa.

Many times, when my friend went to sleep early after it got dark, i took the micro-tripod and my camera and wandering around taking photos by night. Unfortunately this tripod was really cheap one, and it was quite difficult to take a photos, but i managed to do it somehow.
Photo which i want to show you was taken during our trekking in Andes – i think it was in Maizal. I tried to draw lines of the constellations i managed to recognize on this photo. Of course the most important is – the CRUX.

Bigger photos taken in Maizal – [1024x768px]. This photo was taken with values: Exposure time 20s, at F4 and ISO1600, it was _really_ dark :) not like on this photo. Here you can see only this photo, but others from the Maisal village you can see at monochroma.eu.

Photo from the webpage: http://www.fronate.pro.ec/fronate/la-chakana-y-el-mundo-andino