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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 13, Issue 675, 22 April 1869, Page 2

The Southern Heavens. —ln the southern heavens there is a region of the sky in which stars of all magnitudes are strewn more richly than in any other portion of the celestial sphere. This region extends, according to Frazers Magazine, from the feet of the Centaur over the Southern Cross and along the jewelled hull <■ of the ship Argo, merging into the splendid band of stars belonging to the constellations Canis Major, Orion, and Taurus, Across the southern part of this region the Milky Way shines with a lustre so far exceeding that which it has along its northern semicircle as to suggest the impression of greater proximity. The whole region is so splendid that it strikingly impresses those who are accustomed to tiie comparative uniformity of our own nocturnal skies. Travellers in the southern hemisphere fully confirm the extraordinary statement made by tho lite Captain Jacob (a careful astronomer and observer), that " the general blaze from this portion of the sky is such as to render a person immediately aware of its having risen above the horizon, though he should not at the time looking at the heavens, by the increase of general illumination of the atmosphere, resembling the effect of the young moon."