quicko: stars

Just in case you didn't know, let me clear this up: there are different constellations in the Northern hemisphere than in the Southern. And, it seems, there are tons more of them in the Southern. Even living in Sydney with an abundance of light pollution, I see way more stars on an average night than a particulary starry night back home. It's a bit like someone shook a lot of salt around and the splashed it over the sky and it suddenly shimmered and sparkled and shone. (Mindless trivia: the previous sentence included the names of two of my former pets -- Shimmer the hamster and Sparkle the rabbit.)

The Southern Cross is of course the famous constellation, and I did get a friend to show it to me once, but I'm afraid I'd be hard pressed to point it out even if you did come to visit. Instead, I've gotten quite handy with the three-star thingy that looks like Orion's belt but isn't. I'm not quite sure what they call it, but I'm sure it's something catchier than Not-Quite-Orion's-Belt.