Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Crux (Cru)  ·  Contains:  Jewel Box  ·  Mimosa (βCru)  ·  NGC 4349  ·  NGC 4755  ·  NGC 4852  ·  Part of the constellation Musca (Mus)  ·  The constellation Crux (Cru)  ·  The star Becrux  ·  The star Gacrux (γCru)  ·  The star α1Cru  ·  The star α2Cru  ·  The star αMus  ·  The star βMus  ·  The star δCru  ·  The star εCru  ·  The star ζCru  ·  The star ιCru  ·  kappa Cru cluster
Crux and the Coal Sack, Michael Watson
Crux and the Coal Sack
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Description

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

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This view centres on perhaps the best-known constellation and star pattern in the southern Sky: Crux, the southern Cross. This region of the sky - 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 the four bright stars of the elongated cross appear to the right of centre. The brightest star of the cross is Acrux, toward the bottom and just to the left of centre. To the left of the cross, and just above and to the left of Acrux, 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.

155 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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Crux and the Coal Sack, Michael Watson