Constellations · Constellation · Crux · Cru
Constellation
Crux
The Southern Cross: the smallest constellation, and one of the best loved — on the flags of Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Samoa and Papua New Guinea.
- Genitive
- Crux
- Area
- 68 square degrees · 88th of 88
- Brightest star
- Acrux · magnitude 0.77
- Naked-eye stars
- 46 brighter than magnitude 6.5
- Highest at midnight
- early April
Look for
Extend the long bar four and a half times beyond Acrux and you are near the south celestial pole, where there is no bright pole star to mark it.
Look for
Beside it the Coalsack is a black hole in the Milky Way. By Mimosa, binoculars find the Jewel Box, sparkling with one ruby star.
Other skies
In much of Aboriginal Australia the Cross and the Coalsack are the head of the Emu in the Sky, whose dark body stretches along the Milky Way.