28. Crux (Southern Cross)

Crux

Southern Cross

Nightmare

The Milky Way Near the Southern Cross 

　Crux (the Southern Cross)... I had long wondered why Sisask’s image for this constellation was “Nightmare.”

　Although Crux is the smallest constellation in the entire sky, it is widely known as a symbol of the southern sky. For those of us living in the Northern Hemisphere, it is surely a constellation we dream of seeing at least once in our lives. Sailors have long used its distinctive cross shape as a guide and prayed for safe voyages. To me, there had never been anything negative about this constellation.

　This is part of the chart showing the positions of the southern constellations that I introduced earlier. Crux was once considered part of Centaurus.

　If we extend the long axis of the Southern Cross in the direction of Alpha Crucis, we can find the approximate position of the south celestial pole beyond it. Sailors used this constellation to estimate the direction of due south. The Southern Cross also appears to rotate around the south celestial pole, returning to the same position about four minutes earlier each day. Its regular movement allowed people to use it as a celestial clock.

　The dark, blotch-like patch to the lower left of the Southern Cross is the famous dark nebula known as the Coalsack. This dark nebula blocks out the light from the stars of the Milky Way that would otherwise be visible behind Crux. In addition to this dark nebula, the region of Crux also contains the magnificent open star cluster NGC 4755, known as the “Jewel Box.” Both of these celestial objects appear in Sisask’s Galactic Fantasy, an interlude in Starry Sky Cycle – Southern Sky, so I will discuss them in more detail later.

The Southern Cross in a Southern Sky

　This image was taken in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Crux lies close to the horizon. The dark clouds of the Coalsack Nebula seem to billow farther up into the sky, like smoke from a bushfire. Higher up, the star clusters and nebulae of Carina look like flames and smoke spreading from the fire.

　Interestingly, Sisask quotes an Aboriginal myth to introduce Centaurus and Crux. According to this myth, Aboriginal people first came to know fire when the flames of Alpha Centauri and Beta Centauri, the two first-magnitude stars of Centaurus, which were regarded as the bonfires of the heavenly kingdom, were brought down to Earth and caused a fire. It is said that even today, Aboriginal people are reminded of fire when they look at Crux.

　Seeing the image above helped me connect Sisask’s image of “Nightmare” with this story of fire. Aboriginal people do not look at Crux in isolation, but see it as part of the surrounding sky, observing the heavens with an extraordinary breadth of vision and imagination.

　There was another discovery that astonished me. At the end of his essay on the Southern Cross, Japanese astronomy writer Hōei Nojiri concludes with a remark to the effect that “the Southern Cross leaves those of us who tell stories about the stars with the lingering aftertaste of a nightmare.” I would encourage readers to explore Nojiri’s Shin Seiza Junrei (A New Pilgrimage Through the Constellations) for the full story. He also wrote about the Southern Cross in Hoshizora no Romance (Romance of the Starry Sky). Tracing the history of Crux, we discover that it has not always been associated with positive images.

　Sisask’s music for Crux is like a raging inferno.

　A single piano string is plucked (an inside-the-piano technique), and an ominous story begins. The chords gradually give way to tone clusters, played by striking several keys at once with the flat of the hand. Wide leaps across the keyboard, like flames leaping from one place to another, together with relentlessly repeated rhythms and notes that seem to attack again and again, evoke the anguish of being unable to escape from a nightmare. Performing this piece is itself a nightmare, and practicing it is extremely grueling.

　Towards the end of the piece, the opening passage returns, but the sense of foreboding has vanished. We find Crux still there, standing serenely in the sky as though nothing had happened. We can feel how our perception of the same music has changed between the beginning and the end.

　Finally, one beautiful image from Australia. The nightmare is over.

Sky Lights in the New Year 

　The Milky Way in the Southern Hemisphere, Alpha Centauri and Beta Centauri, Crux, the Coalsack Nebula, and the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds are all clearly visible.

　The bright star framed by the tips of the tree branches on the right is Achernar, Alpha Eridani, the brightest star in Eridanus. Its name means “the end of the river.”