The modern constellation

Crux Crux () is a constellation of the southern sky that is centred on four bright stars in a cross-shaped asterism commonly known as the Southern Cross. It lies on the southern end of the Milky Way's visible band. The name ''Crux'' is Latin for ...

is not included in the

Three Enclosures Traditional Chinese astronomy has a system of dividing the celestial sphere into asterisms or constellations, known as "officials" ( Chinese ''xīng guān''). The Chinese asterisms are generally smaller than the constellations of Hellenistic ...

and Twenty-Eight Mansions system of traditional Chinese uranography because its stars are too far south for observers in China to know about them prior to the introduction of Western star charts. Based on the work of

Xu Guangqi Xu Guangqi or Hsü Kuang-ch'i (April 24, 1562– November 8, 1633), also known by his baptismal name Paul, was a Chinese agronomist, astronomer, mathematician, politician, and writer during the Ming dynasty. Xu was a colleague and collaborato ...

and the German Jesuit missionary

Johann Adam Schall von Bell Johann Adam Schall von Bell (1 May 1591 – 15 August 1666) was a German Jesuit, astronomer and instrument-maker. He spent most of his life as a missionary in China (where he is remembered as "Tang Ruowang") and became an adviser to the Shunz ...

in the late

Ming Dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han peo ...

, this constellation has been classified as one of the 23 Southern Asterisms (近南極星區, ''jìn nán jí xīng qū'') under the name

Cross A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two intersecting lines or bars, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of the Latin letter X, is termed a sa ...

(十字架, ''shí zì jià''). Possibly

Acrux Acrux is the brightest star in the southern constellation of Crux. It has the Bayer designation α Crucis, which is Latinised to Alpha Crucis and abbreviated Alpha Cru or α Cru. With a combined visual magnitude of +0.76, it is the 1 ...

(Alpha Crucis),

Mimosa ''Mimosa'' is a genus of about 590 species of herbs and shrubs, in the mimosoid clade of the legume family Fabaceae. The generic name is derived from the Greek word (''mimos''), an "actor" or "mime", and the feminine suffix -''osa'', "resemb ...

(Beta Crucis) and

Gacrux Gacrux it is the third-brightest star in the southern constellation of Crux, the Southern Cross. It has the Bayer designation Gamma Crucis, which is Latinised from γ Crucis and abbreviated Gamma Cru or γ Cru. With an apparent visual ...

(Gamma Crucis) are bright stars in this constellation that never seen in Chinese sky. The name of the western constellation in modern Chinese is 南十字座 (''nán shí zì zuò''), meaning "the southern cross-shaped constellation".

Stars

The map of Chinese constellation in constellation Crux area consists of :

References

{{reflist

External links

Crux – Chinese associations香港太空館
https://web.archive.org/web/20120813070951/http://www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/Museum/Space/Research/c_index.htm 研究資源]
中國星區、星官及星名英譯表

台灣自然科學博物館
https://web.archive.org/web/20100629152022/http://aeea.nmns.edu.tw/ 天文教育資訊網]
中國古天文

Astronomy in China Crux

Stars

See also

References

External links