The Jewel Cluster

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31307, 1 March 1967, Page 9

The Jewel Cluster

Whilst all the objects mentioned are beautiful and interesting, the greatest glory in this constellation lies in a faint hazy patch only barely visible to the naked eye. This patch can be seen with the unaided eye just below Beta Crucis and lying alongside the edge of the Coal Sack. It appears as a fuzzy star.

But even with a small telescope it is transformed into a glittering array of stars whose vividly contrasting colours often lead people to liken it to a dazzling piece of jewellery hung in the sky. In fact, it is popularly called the Jewel Cluster or Jewel Box. To astronomers it is known as Kappa Crucis.

Although the Southern Cross appears in the sky as a compact, easily recognised group of stars, its individual members are in reality widely separated in space. They just lie in the same general direction. Beta Crucis, for instance is four times as far away as Alpha Crucis and nearly a hundred times as far as Alpha Centauri. There are many other glories in this group which can be well-studied even with a binocular. With a telescope of only a few inches aperture, fascinating hours can be spent examining, not only the individual stars, but also the clusters that abound in this region. Such instrumental means will also show that both Alpha and Gamma Cru-

cis are not only double but multiple systems of stars. Travellers returning home from the Northern Hemisphere always seek the first sign of the Southern Cross creeping just above the horizon as a sign that they are travelling south. It is a true emblem of southern lands, for like them, it is beautiful and a promise of the richness of the southern skies.