A dilly-bag in the sky

I was all geared up last week to photograph the blue blood monster purple super moon eclipse thing, but clouds got in the way. I had  my camera set up and ready though, so when the sky cleared again a few nights later, I pointed it up at the Southern Cross, where a new star had been born.

That's a lie of course. No new star, but a new name for one of the existing ones. Epsilon Crucis, the fifth brightest star of the constellation, had been reborn as Ginan, courtesy of the International Astronomical Union, as part of their programme to recognise the names used by indigenous peoples around the world. Ginan is the name used for the star for thousands of years by the Wardaman people of the Northern Territory. It represents a red dilly-bag full of special songs of knowledge.