CENTAURUS AND THE SOUTHERN CROSS These are the most interesting constellations of the far south, but to most of the northern hemispheres they are invisible. ALPHA CENTAURI AND THE SOUTHERN CROSS FAR in the south, and near the southern Pole, are two objects which we must not fail to mention; one is Alpha Centauri, our sun's nearest known neighbor sun, and the other is the Southern Cross. Alpha Centauri and Beta Centauri are the two first-magnitude stars in the constellation Centaurus, and are sometimes called the "southern pointers," because they point to the Southern Cross. Alpha Centauri is the brighter, and is 4.3 light years away from us. When we consider that light travels 186,400 miles a second, and recall the number of seconds in a year, it makes us feel very much alone in space to know that the light we see to-night started from our nearest neighbor nearly four and a half years ago. The Southern Cross is a tiny constellation of four stars-one first magnitude, two second magnitudes, and one third magnitude-that form almost a perfect cross; and it is world-wide famous because of the beauty of these four bright stars so close together in a figure with so many romantic and religious associations. CONSTELLATIONS O CONSTELLATIONS of the early night, The streaming tresses of the Egyptian Queen 196 Grow starless in her later hours? Have these |