Southern Pole Star (South Star)
Currently, there is no South Star as useful as Polaris. Sigma Octantis is the naked-eye star closest to the south Celestial pole, but at apparent magnitude 5.45 it is too faint to serve as a useful pole star. Its angular separation from the pole is about 1° (as of 2000). The Southern Cross constellation functions as an approximate southern pole constellation, by pointing to where a southern pole star would be. At the equator it is possible to see both Polaris and the Southern Cross.
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Famous quotes containing the words southern, pole and/or star:
“My mother bore me in the southern wild,
And I am black, but O! my soul is white;”
—William Blake (1757–1827)
“Midwinter spring is its own season
Sempiternal though sodden towards sundown,
Suspended in time, between pole and tropic.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,”
—John Masefield (1878–1967)