                APOD: 2018 June 28 - Sigma Octantis and Friends

                         Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! [1] Each day a different image or photograph of our
 fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a
                           professional astronomer.

                                 2018 June 28
                                      [2]
                          Sigma Octantis and Friends
              Image Credit & Copyright [3] : Frank Sackenheim [4]

Explanation: South pole star Sigma Octantis [5] (of the constellation Octans)
is on the left of this starry expanse spanning over 40 degrees across far
southern skies. You'll have to look hard to find it, though [6] . The southern
hemisphere's faint counterpart to the north star Polaris, Sigma Octantis is a
little over one degree from the South Celestial Pole [7] . Also known as
Polaris Australis, Sigma Octantis [8] is below 5th magnitude, some 25 times
fainter than Polaris and not easy to see with the unaided eye. In fact [9] ,
it may be the faintest star depicted on a national flag. The remarkable deep
and wide-field view also covers faint, dusty galactic cirrus clouds, bounded
at the right by the star clusters and nebulae along the southern reaches of
plane of our Milky Way galaxy [10] . Near the upper right corner is yellowish
Gamma Crucis, the top of the Southern Cross [11] . Easy to pick out above and
right of center is the long Dark Doodad [12] nebula in the southern
constellation Musca, the Fly.

                      Tomorrow's picture: star cloud [13]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
< [14] | Archive [15] | Submissions [16] | Index [17] | Search [18] | Calendar
  [19] | RSS [20] | Education [21] | About APOD [22] | Discuss [23] | > [24]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff [25] (MTU [26] ) & Jerry Bonnell [27]
                                  (UMCP [28] )
          NASA Official:  Phillip Newman Specific rights apply [29] .
              NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices [30]
              A service of: ASD [31]  at NASA [32]  / GSFC [33]
                           & Michigan Tech. U. [34]
----------
Site notes:
  [1] archivepix.html
  [2] image/1806/Milkyway_Musca_SPSackenheim2048.jpg
  [3] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [4] http://astrophotocologne.de/
  [5] http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/polaust.html
  [6] image/1806/Milkyway_Musca_SPSackenheim1024Lab.jpg
  [7] ap061202.html
  [8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigma_Octantis
  [9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Brazil#Stars
  [10] https://www.nasa.gov/jpl/ charting-the-milky-way-from-the-inside-out
  [11] ap070517.html
  [12] ap150910.html
  [13] ap180629.html
  [14] ap180627.html
  [15] archivepix.html
  [16] lib/apsubmit2015.html
  [17] lib/aptree.html
  [18] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  [19] calendar/allyears.html
  [20] /apod.rss
  [21] lib/edlinks.html
  [22] lib/about_apod.html
  [23] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=180628
  [24] ap180629.html
  [25] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  [26] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  [27] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  [28] http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  [29] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [30] https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  [31] https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  [32] https://www.nasa.gov/
  [33] https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  [34] http://www.mtu.edu/
