Editing Crux (section)

==History==
The bright stars in Crux were known to the [[Ancient Greeks]], where [[Ptolemy]] regarded them as part of the constellation [[Centaurus]].<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Pasachoff|first1=J. M.|authorlink=Jay Pasachoff|last2=Menzel|first2=D. H.|authorlink2=Donald Howard Menzel|last3=Tirion|first3=W.|authorlink3=Wil Tirion|editor=R. T. Petarson|title=A Field Guide to the Stars and Planets|edition=3|year=1992|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company|location=New York|series=The Peterson Field Guide Series|volume=15|isbn=0395537649|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OuMLSZI1ZUIC&q=crux|page=144}}</ref>{{sfn|Staal|1988|p=247}} They were entirely visible as far north as [[Great Britain|Britain]] in the fourth millennium BC. However, the [[precession of the equinoxes]] gradually lowered the stars below the European horizon, and they were eventually forgotten by the inhabitants of northern latitudes.{{sfn|Ridpath|Tirion|2017|pp=134–135}} By 400&nbsp;[[Anno Domini|AD]], the stars in the constellation now called Crux never rose above the horizon throughout most of Europe. [[Dante Alighieri|Dante]] may have known about the constellation in the 14th century, as he describes an [[asterism (astronomy)|asterism]] of four bright stars in the southern sky in his ''[[Divine Comedy]]''.<ref>Dante, ''Purgatorio'', Canto I, lines 22-27, Hollander translation
::"I turned to the right and, fixing my attention
::on the other pole, I saw four stars
:: not seen but by those first on earth.
:: The very sky seemed to rejoice
:: in their bright glittering. O widowed
:: region of the north, denied that sight!"
</ref><ref name="Walker1882">{{Cite journal|title=Dante and the Southern Cross|author=Walker, J. J.|journal=Nature|volume=25|issue=636|date=22 December 1881|page=173|doi=10.1038/025217b0|s2cid=4064727|doi-access=free}}</ref> His description, however, may be allegorical, and the similarity to the constellation a coincidence.<ref name="Dante">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p_5l2FCfvF8C&q=%22almost+certain+that+Dante+did+not+know+about+that+formation%22&pg=PT315|title=The Divine Comedy|author=Dante Alighieri|isbn=9781101117996|date=2003-05-27|publisher=Penguin }}</ref>

[[Image:Southern Celestial Map of Mestre João Faras.gif|thumb|left|Depiction of the Crux by [[João Faras]] in May 1500]]

The 15th&nbsp;century Venetian navigator [[Alvise Cadamosto]] made note of what was probably the Southern Cross on exiting the [[Gambia River]] in 1455, calling it the ''carro dell'ostro'' ("southern chariot").  However, Cadamosto's accompanying diagram was inaccurate.<ref>{{cite book |quote=We likewise observed ... due south by compass, a constellation of six large bright stars, in the figure of a cross in this form ... we conjectured this to be the southern chariot, but could not expect to observe the principal star, as we had not yet lost sight of the north pole. |author=Cadamosto, A. |title=Navigatione |year=c. 1465 |edition= 1550 Ramusio |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iZ5TZHXOnYcC&pg=RA2-PA114 |page=116r}}{{cite book |author=Cadamosto, A. |title=Navigatione |year=c. 1465 |edition= 1811 Kerr |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YVjm2VmuOlgC&pg=PA244 |page=244}}. However, no manuscript of Cadamosto's notebook has survived, only the printed version, and the errors in the diagram may be due to the printer's decision.</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Dekker, Elly |author-link= Elly Dekker |date=1990 |title=Annals of Science |volume=47 |pages=530–533}}</ref> Historians generally credit [[João Faras]]<ref group=lower-alpha>[[João Faras]] was an astronomer and physician of King [[Manuel I of Portugal]] who accompanied [[Pedro Álvares Cabral]] in the discovery of Brazil in 1500</ref> for being the first European to depict it correctly. Faras sketched and described the constellation (calling it "''las guardas''") in a letter written on the beaches of Brazil on 1&nbsp;May 1500 to the Portuguese monarch.<ref>{{cite book |title=Revista do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro |location=Rio de Janeiro |year=1843 |volume=V |issue=19 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fx1-Np41_90C&pg=PA342}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Dekker, Elly|author-link= Elly Dekker  |date=1990 |title=Annals of Science |volume=47 |pages=533–535}}</ref>

Explorer [[Amerigo Vespucci]] seems to have observed not only the Southern Cross but also the neighboring Coalsack Nebula on his second voyage in 1501–1502.<ref>{{cite book |author=Dekker, Elly |author-link= Elly Dekker |date=1990 |title=Annals of Science |volume=47 |pages=535–543}}</ref>

Another early modern description clearly describing Crux as a separate constellation is attributed to [[Andrea Corsali]], an Italian navigator who from 1515 to 1517 sailed to China and the [[East Indies]] in an expedition sponsored by [[Manuel I of Portugal|King Manuel&nbsp;I]]. In 1516, Corsali wrote a letter to the monarch describing his observations of the southern sky, which included a rather crude map of the stars around the south celestial pole including the Southern Cross and the two Magellanic Clouds seen in an external orientation, as on a globe.<ref>{{cite book |author=Dekker, Elly|author-link= Elly Dekker  |date=1990 |title=Annals of Science |volume=47 |pages=545–548}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Letter to Giuliano de Medici |year=c. 1516 |url=http://www2.sl.nsw.gov.au/archive/events/exhibitions/2010/onehundred/100-objects/Exhibit-002.htm |website=State Library of New South Wales |access-date=1 February 2018}}</ref>

[[Emery Molyneux]] and [[Petrus Plancius]] have also been cited as the first [[Celestial cartography|uranographers]] (sky mappers) to distinguish Crux as a separate constellation; their representations date from 1592, the former depicting it on his [[celestial globe]] and the latter in one of the small celestial maps on his large wall map. Both authors, however, depended on unreliable sources and placed Crux in the wrong position. Crux was first shown in its correct position on the celestial globes of [[Petrus Plancius]] and [[Jodocus Hondius]] in 1598 and 1600. Its stars were first catalogued separately from Centaurus by [[Frederick de Houtman]] in 1603.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ianridpath.com/startales/crux.html |title=Ian Ridpath's Star Tales – Crux |access-date=5 August 2013}}</ref> The constellation was later adopted by [[Jakob Bartsch]] in 1624 and [[Augustin Royer]] in 1679. Royer is sometimes wrongly cited as initially distinguishing Crux.{{sfn|Staal|1988|p=247}}