Overview

Myriads of Blazing Suns

The Southern Cross

How to Tell the Time

An Infallible Direction Indicator

Outstanding Stars

Stars of the Centaur

Strange Aboriginal Folklore

A Glowing Mass of Stars

Super Suns of the Heavens

The False Cross

The Southern Triangle

Ara and The Scorpion

Other Stars

how to tell the time

The "Add Six" Method. The majority of the many schemes that have been expounded appear complicated to most people, but the one suggested by the writer and n am ed by him the "Add Six" method is easy to remember and apply. The Southern Cross is regarded as the tip of the hour hand of a 24-hour clock on which 24 is at the top, 6 is horizon-tally to the right in the position normally occupied by 3 on ordinary clocks, 12 is at the bottom, and 18 horizontally to the left, i.e., eastward as you face south.

All the other hours are spaced equally between, and, since it is a 24-hour clock, are twice as crowded as the hours on an ordinary clock.

The "Add Six" method is this: firstly, judge the "star" time by the position of the Cross, remembering that the head always points outwards ; secondly, add six; and thirdly, (remembering that our star clock gains 4 minutes a day, i.e., 2 hours a month), subtract 2 hours for each completed month since the start of the year.

Part of a month should be allowed for, of course, at the s am e rate of 4 minutes a day. The result is the approxi­mate time in 24-hour parlance, i.e., 1 means 1 a.m., 12 means noon , 13 means 1 p.m. and so on to 24 which means midnight . As an ex- am ple, supposing it is the end of August and the Cross is a little past, i.e., to the east of, its lowest position. It is estimated to be one hour beyond its inverted vertical position, therefore it indicates 13 hours. To 13 ADD SIX, making 19. Now subtract 16 (January to August, 8 months at 2 hours each) and the result, 3, means that it is 3 a.m. The accuracy of the figure de­pends mainly on one's ability to judge the hour to which the "hand " points.