Crux, Centaurus and the Coal Sack (Michael Watson)

Celestial hemisphere: Southern · Constellation: Centaurus (Cen) · Contains: Hadar (βCen) · IC 2944 · IC 2948 · Mimosa (βCru) · NGC 5299 · Part of the constellation Centaurus (Cen) · The constellation Crux (Cru) · The star Agena · The star Becrux · The star Gacrux (γCru) · The star α1Cen · The star α1Cru · The star α2Cen · The star α2Cru · The star βMus · The star δCru · The star λCen · lambda Cen nebula

Crux, Centaurus and the Coal Sack, Michael Watson

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Crux, Centaurus and the Coal Sack

Link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/97587627@N06/15788931338/in/set-72157647335374894/

Photographed near Coonabarabran (site of the Anglo-Australian Observatory at Siding Spring, New South Wales, Australia)

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Among the constellations of the southern sky, Centaurus and Crux are the most prominent and the best known, partly because of their bright stars and partly because of their striking star patterns. This region of the celestial sphere - through which our Milky Way galaxy passes - is always below the horizon and can never been seen from most of the northern hemisphere.

In this view Centaurus is at the left. The first-magnitude stars Alpha and Beta (also known as Hadar) Centauri are at the top left. At the right side of the frame is the distinctive four-star cross pattern of Crux (also known as the Southern Cross). The brightest star in this group is Acrux, three-quarters of the way from left to right and one-third of the way up from the bottom of the frame. Just to the left of the cross is a large, dark, almost star-empty region known as the Coal Sack.

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Nikkor 70-200 mm lens on Nikon D810 camera body, mounted on Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer tracking mount.

92 mm focal length; ISO 2000; four stacked 90-second exposures at f/4.5

Stacked in Registar; processed in Photoshop CS6

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Astrometry.net job	487278
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