Crux

Crux is the most familiar constellation in the southern hemisphere. This smallest constellation was once part of Centaurus, but the sight of such a brilliant cross in the sky was so compelling that it became a constellation of its own in the sixteenth century.
Thousands of years ago these four stars were an object of reverence in the countries of the Near East. Two thousand years ago, in Biblical days, they were just visible at the horizon. Some might find a religious connection, linking their disappearance with the Crucifixion of Christ. Over the centuries, the Earth's precession has brought the cross far to the south, close to the south celestial pole.
It was the European explorers of the early sixteenth century who "rediscovered" the Southern Cross and made it an official constellation.

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