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Credit & Copyright: Petr Horalek,
Josef Kujal
Explanation:
The South Celestial Pole
is easy to spot in star trail images of the southern sky.
The extension of Earth's axis of rotation to the south, it's
at the center of all the southern star trail arcs.
In this starry panorama
streching about 60 degrees across deep southern skies
the South Celestial Pole is somewhere near the middle though,
flanked by bright galaxies and southern celestial gems.
Across the top of the frame are the stars and nebulae along the plane
of our own Milky Way Galaxy.
Gamma Crucis, a yellowish giant star
heads the Southern Cross near top
center, with the dark expanse of the Coalsack nebula tucked under the
cross arm on the left.
Eta Carinae and the reddish glow of the Great Carina Nebula shine along
the galactic plane near the right edge.
At the bottom are the Large and Small Magellanic clouds,
external
galaxies
in their own right and satellites of the mighty Milky Way.
A line from Gamma Crucis through the blue star at the bottom of the
southern cross, Alpha Crucis, points toward the South Celestial Pole,
but where exactly is it?
Just look
for south pole star
Sigma Octantis.
Analog to Polaris the north pole star,
Sigma Octantis is little over one degree fom the
the South Celestial pole.
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NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: south pole
Publications with words: south pole
See also: