Crux constellation and the southern celestial pole. Crux, the southern cross, is formed of four bright stars in the Milky Way at upper centre. Just le

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Crux constellation and the southern celestial pole. Crux, the southern cross, is formed of four bright stars in the Milky Way at upper centre. Just left of its base, the dark Coal Sack nebula is seen. This is a foreground cloud of dark dust that blocks the light from the Milky Way stars beyond it. The bright stars at upper left are Alpha Centauri (left) and Hadar (Beta Centauri, right). The top and bottom stars in Crux (Gamma and Alpha Crucis) point towards the south celestial pole, some times the Gamma-Alpha distance below Crux. Unlike the north celestial pole, which has Polaris, the south pole has no bright star near to it.

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Photo credit: © ECKHARD SLAWIK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
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Keywords: alpha, astronomical, astronomy, centauri, centaurus, cluster, coal, constellation, constellations, cross, crux, dark, globular, hemisphere, nebula, nebulae, night, omega, pointers, sack, sky, southern, space, star, stars