Meridiana

Its story

Meridiana crowns the small Southern Crown, a white A-type star 125 light-years away. The constellation is modest but ancient, already named by Ptolemy, and the ancients pictured it as a wreath fallen at the feet of the neighbouring centaur. Its Latin name evokes midday and the meridian line of the sky. Meridiana's light travels in silence for a century and a quarter before settling on the human eye — almost a direct echo of the nineteenth century.