12/06/2026
SOUTHERN SKY SECRETS #3 – How to find Centaurus
Many people can pick out the stars and shape of the Southern Cross, especially when it's upright high in the southern sky, as it is in June from 6:30 – 9:30 PM. However, most probably don’t realise that an impressive larger constellation called Centaurus, representing a mythological centaur – half man and half horse, surrounds the cross like a horseshoe, on three sides.
The centaur’s two brightest stars are the front hooves but are better known as ‘the pointers’ to the Southern Cross. A line from Alpha through Beta Centauri always points toward the top star of the cross – no matter the season or the orientation.
Centaurus is a very ancient constellation known by the Greeks over 2,000 years ago and, surprisingly even Alpha and Beta Centauri were seen by them. Surprising, because these stars have now disappeared from the skies of Greece and most Mediterranean locations due to axial precession of the earth – a kind of slow wobble in its tilt from the perpendicular, which saw these stars 10 degrees further north in the sky in ancient times.
Fortuitously for Australians but unfortunately for Europeans, we can add the constellation of the centaur to our list of the delights of the southern sky, though they no longer see its brightest members.
Once again, I’m going to use a ‘guide chart’ of the stars of Centaurus which I drew by hand for graphic artists of The Age newspaper some years ago. They used it as the basis to create the full colour professional version, to accompany my article on Centaurus in the weekly astronomy column of the paper back then.
Most of the stars which make up the shape of the constellation are visible to the naked eye easily from a dark sky site, but they’re also visible on a moonless night from the suburbs of a large city such as Melbourne – if you let your eyes get dark adapted for 10 minutes or so and avoid exposing them to bright white light.
The outstretched arms of the centaur are in that position because he has speared a wolf (which is the constellation ‘Lupus’ immediately east - or left - of Centaurus) and it dangles at the end of the spear.
There are some very significant stars and celestial objects in Centaurus, such as the nearest star to us apart from the Sun; the bright globular cluster Omega Centauri, containing about five million stars and visible to the naked eye as a hazy patch; and the Hamburger Galaxy, which requires a large telescope to be seen to advantage.
We’ll look at each of these objects in much more detail in a future Southern Sky Secrets post, but in the meantime, go out there and hunt the centaur. If you spot it and it all falls into place for you, you’ll be doing better than most astronomers as its true shape eludes the majority of them.
If you’ve got a break in the clouds, get out and give it a try – show the family and tell your friends. Feel free to share this post.
Good luck and clear skies!
