The “Southern Cross”

For many years I have read about and listened to “boat songs” about the Southern Cross. Although we were active sailors, our ventures were limited to the Northern Hemisphere, so I was not able to experience every North American sailor’s dream of seeing the constellation of “Crux”, aka, “The Southern Cross”. Last week our good friends were visiting from Fiji. These are boating friends from Florida, who while we decided on retirement in Costa Rica, they decided to go cruising and have now lived life at sea for the past 6 years.
One night while enjoying dinner outside on the terrace we were discussing my dreams of coming to the “south” if for no other reason than to see Crux – just so I could tell my other boating friends, my kids and my grandkids that I had actually seen it, and it was real!
To my surprise, my friend’s wife said “We would love to have you visit and sail with us, but if you really want to see the Southern Cross, all you need to do is look over your shoulder!” I turned, and with her guidance found that it was indeed visable riht here in Samara!
After doing some “google reaearch” it turns out that the southerly-facing beaches of the Nicoya Peninsula are one of the very few places in the Northern hemisphere that offers a view of the Southern Cross. I am sure there are other places as well, perhaps in the mountains – so if you can see it as well please let me know where so if I am visiting your area I can enjoy it while there.
For the past few nights it has been brilliant! It rises a bit later each night, and is turned almost 45 degrees upon rising but as the night progresses it becomes more vertical. I don’t know how long we’ll be able to see it here in Samara, but (because it is one of the few constellations I have ever recognized) I plan on enjoying it as many nights as possible.
If you are fortunate enough to have a dark night with limited lighting, and if you want to see something that very vew people north of the Equator have seen, take a few minutes and see if you can locate it low on the southern horizon. Check the internet or a star chart so you know what to look for (there are two bright “pointers” below and to the left that rise after the constellation itself) but once you find it there is no problem finding again.
Enjoy!