~ Southern Cross ~
Taken by Noeleen Lowndes on July 12, 2021 @
Leyburn Qld Australia
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Date Taken: 2021:08:02 16:52:24
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Details:
At this time of year the Southern Cross with the brilliant stars of Centaurs are starting to head down into the western sky, with starlight from the Milky Way blazing above at the Zenith, seen in a dark sky it’s just breath-taking!
The image shows to the left the spectacular stars of Alpha and Beta Centauri that point the way to the Southern Cross. These two stars are also known Rigil Kentaurus (Alpha Cen) and Hadar (Beta Cen). Alpha Centauri is a triple star system with one of its stars called Proxima Centaui that’s the closest star to our Sun at just 4.3 light-years away!
The Southern Cross (Crux) is the smallest constellation in the sky and has some very colourful stars. At the top there is the pretty yellow/orange star Gamma Crucis, the bottom blue star is Alpha Crucis and points to the south celestial pole. The other stars are to the left Beta Crucis with the Jewel Box nebula (NGC 4755) close by and to the right is another blue star called Delta Crucis with the orange-hued star Epsilon Crucis just below.
To the bottom of the Southern Cross is a large dark nebula known as the Coalsack Nebula that spans 7x5 degrees and when viewed from a very dark sky looks just magnificent. There’s so much gas and dust in this area it’s blotting out the starlight from behind.
This image was taken at my Stardust Observatory in a very dark clear sky with my new Canon 6D Mk11 camera and a Canon 50mm set at f4 and ISO3200, 15 images were captured and stacked in DSS with corresponding dark frames and processed in PS, the image is cropped.
*** Message to Thierry Legault: Thierry your image of the Tiangong Space Station transiting the Sun is just awesome…fantastic capture! ☺ Noeleen ***
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