Many flags around the world use stars from the night sky in their designs. You might recognize some, and perhaps didn't even know what you were seeing. To learn more, you'll first have to go out and look up.

As soon as darkness falls these evenings, step outside and look skyward. What is the most prominent and easiest star pattern to recognize?

It is one of the most recognizable patterns in the sky and thus one of the easiest for the novice to find.

In other parts of the world, these seven stars are known not as a Dipper, but as some sort of a wagon. In Ireland, for instance, it was recognized as "King Davids Chariot," from one of that islands early kings; in France, it was the "Great Chariot." Another popular name was Charless Wain (a wain being a large open farm wagon). And in the British Isles, these seven stars are known widely as "The Plough."

Of greatest importance is the ability to utilize the Big Dipper to locate Polaris, the North Star. This is made possible by the two bright stars that mark the outer edge of the bowl of the Big Dipper. These two stars Dubhe and Merak are known as the Pointers, because they always point to Polaris. Just draw a line, in your imagination, between these two stars and prolong this line about 5 times, the way our map shows; this line will ultimately hit a moderately bright star. That will be Polaris.

But for those who live in the Southern Hemisphere, it is not the Big Dipper that people choose as their guide to the night sky but rather, its the constellation known as Crux, the Southern Cross. It appears in many national flags.

Those south of the equator (where the season is late autumn right now), need only cast a glance toward the south where theyll see the distinctive shape of the Cross hanging well up in the sky.

To some, it looks more like a kite, though the Cross is clearly outlined by four bright stars, two of which, Acrux and Becrux are of the first magnitude. From top to bottom, Crux measures just 6 degrees only a little taller than the distance between the Pointer stars of the Big Dipper. In fact, the Southern Cross is the smallest (in area) of all the constellations.

Like the Big Dipper of the northern sky, the Southern Cross indicates the location of the pole and as such is often utilized by navigators. The longer bar of the Cross points almost exactly toward the south pole of the sky which some aviators and navigators have named the "south polar pit" because, unfortunately, it is not marked by any bright star.

It is thought that Amerigo Vespucci was the first of the European voyagers to see the "Four Stars," as he called them, while on his third voyage in 1501.

Actually, Crux was plainly visible everywhere in the United States some 5,000 years ago, as well as in ancient Greece and Babylonia. According to Richard Hinckley Allen (1838-1908), an expert in stellar nomenclature, the Southern Cross was last seen on the horizon of Jerusalem about the time that Christ was crucified.

But thanks to precession an oscillating motion of the Earths axis over the centuries, the Cross ended up getting shifted out of view well to the south.

Immediately to the south and east of the Cross is a pear-shaped, inky spot, about as large as the Cross itself, looking like a great black hole in the midst of the Milky Way. When Sir John Herschel first saw it from the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa in 1835, it is said that he wrote his aunt, Caroline about this "hole in the sky." Indeed, few stars are seen within this hole and it soon became popularly known as the "Coalsack" which initially was thought to be some sort of window into outer space.

Today we know that the celebrated Coalsack is really a great cloud of gas and dust that absorbs the light of the stars that must lie beyond it.

John Bell "Benny" Benson, a 13-year old Native American boy, is credited the design of the Alaska State flag in 1926.

Benson, who lived in the village of Chignik, was responding to a contest sponsored by the Alaska Department of the American Legion. The prize a $1,000 trip to Washington, D.C. and a gold watch engraved with the flag was awarded to Benson in 1927.

But because his father was ill and then-President Calvin Coolidge was out of the country, Benson never made the trip. Instead, the $1,000 was put toward his education. The Territorial Legislature adopted the flag in May 1927 as Alaskas official flag. When Alaska entered the Union in 1959, the territorial flag was adopted for official state use.

Young Bensons design was selected for its simplicity, originality and symbolism. The flags blue field represents the evening sky, the blue of the sea and of mountain lakes, as well as Alaskas wildflowers.

Emblazoned on the flag are eight gold stars: seven of which belong to the constellation of Ursa Major, the Great Bear and form the Big Dipper. The eighth star incorporated into the flag is Polaris, the North Star. Ursa Major was chosen because it was considered to be the most conspicuous constellation in the northern sky, while Polaris is the ever-constant star for the mariner, the explorer, hunter, trapper, prospector, woodsman and the surveyor.

Crux, the Southern Cross, can be found on the national flags of Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Brazil. Interestingly, on the flags of Australia, Brazil, Papua New Guinea and Samoa, Crux is represented with five stars, while on the New Zealand flag only the four brightest stars of the Cross are depicted, the faintest fifth star (Epsilon Crucis) being omitted.

Additionally, on the Brazilian flag, Crux is not the only constellation that is represented. In fact, there are a total of twenty-seven stars, each representative of a Brazilian State or its Federal District. All the stars are actually present in the night sky, depicted as if seen on a blue globe.

The star positions were plotted for 20:30 local time on Nov. 15, 1889 over Rio de Janeiro. The date corresponds to when the Emperor Dom Pedro II was deposed and Marechal Deodoro Da Fonseca declared Brazil a republic.

In addition to Crux, seven other constellations are shown: Canis Major, the Big Dog; Canis Minor, the Little Dog; Virgo, the Virgin; Scorpius, the Scorpion; Hydra, the Water Snake; Triangulum Australe, the Southern Triangle, Carina, the Keel of Argo, the Ship and Octans, the Octant.

A banner across the sky reads Ordem e Progresso which means "Order and Progress" in Portuguese.

There are probably a number of readers who have never seen either the Big Dipper or the Southern Cross and might wonder about how far they might have to travel in order to get a view of them. Coincidentally, at this time of the year, both are attaining their highest positions in the sky at the same time: right after nightfall in late May and early June.

To see Crux, one must go at least as far south as latitude 25 degrees North. That means heading to the Florida Keys in the continental United States, where youll see it just lifting fully above the southern horizon.

To see the Big Dipper, you must be north of latitude 25 degrees South to see it in its entirety. Across the northern half of Australia, for instance, you can now just see the upside-down Dipper virtually scraping the northern horizon soon after sundown.

In contrast, those who live in north temperate latitudes (like New York or San Francisco), see the Dipper at a similar altitude above the northern horizon on early evenings in late November or early December, though the Dipper is right side up!