The Southern Cross is an iconic Southern Hemisphere star formation. Almost everyone in the Southern Hemisphere is familiar with it. It is part of the Australian and New Zealand Flags.
You can tell where direct south is using it. There is even a method of telling the time using it!
A number of these bright colourful stars are binary stars.
One of the " 2 pointers" (not shown in my image)is the closest star to Earth after the Sun (Alpha Centauri at 4.39 light years and a binary star).
The Southern Cross is always above the horizon although it can get pretty low and it rotates quite closely around the South Celestial Pole.
Here is my version of this famous object.
FSQ106ED wuth reducer giving F3.64. STL11 Class 2 camera and Tak NJP mount autoguided with the remote guide head and SBig efinder mounted on a Losmandy dovetail adapter that simply locks onto the scope's dovetail plate - very handy.
A 4 panel mosaic 90 minutes each giving a total of 6 hours exposure time. LRGB 30 20 20 20 each panel.
Imaged over 2 successive nights.
http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/98454327
Greg.
You can tell where direct south is using it. There is even a method of telling the time using it!
A number of these bright colourful stars are binary stars.
One of the " 2 pointers" (not shown in my image)is the closest star to Earth after the Sun (Alpha Centauri at 4.39 light years and a binary star).
The Southern Cross is always above the horizon although it can get pretty low and it rotates quite closely around the South Celestial Pole.
Here is my version of this famous object.
FSQ106ED wuth reducer giving F3.64. STL11 Class 2 camera and Tak NJP mount autoguided with the remote guide head and SBig efinder mounted on a Losmandy dovetail adapter that simply locks onto the scope's dovetail plate - very handy.
A 4 panel mosaic 90 minutes each giving a total of 6 hours exposure time. LRGB 30 20 20 20 each panel.
Imaged over 2 successive nights.
http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/98454327
Greg.
