Southern hemisphere sky: an astronomy guide (2023)

FAQs

Why is the southern hemisphere better for astronomy? ›

While the north pole faces outwards to the Universe beyond, the south pole points to the galactic centre of the Milky Way. This means more bright stars and more constellations containing more stunning objects. Plus, everything in the southern hemisphere sky will look upside down, if you're used to northern skies.

Crux: Commonly called the Southern Cross, Crux is the most important constellation for navigating in the Southern Hemisphere, as it can be used to find due south. Crux contains five stars that form a slightly irregular cross and is the smallest constellation in the sky.

Simple navigation in the southern hemisphere

Instead, the Southern Cross is used to find the South Celestial Pole. The Southern Cross is a compact group of bright stars close together in the sky, with two pointer stars always pointing to them from the lower left.

As you go down in latitude from the North Pole to the South Pole, the sky you can see will gradually change. So the sky that someone in Arizona sees has some overlap with the sky that someone in, say, Chile (in the Southern Hemisphere) sees, but it is not the same.

Broadly speaking, the best time of year to see the Milky Way in the Southern Hemisphere is from late February to late October, while the Milky Way season goes from late January to late November.

Southern Hemisphere

Southern skies are more popular for their stargazing opportunities because the South Pole faces the center of the Milky Way.

Venus can often be seen within a few hours after sunset or before sunrise as the brightest object in the sky (other than the moon). It looks like a very bright star. Venus is the brightest planet in the Solar System.

Sirius – The Multicoloured Twinkling Star

Sirius is the brightest star in the sky and as a result, it can easily be found in the faint constellation of Canis Major. Left and below Orion. Its name comes from ancient Greek meaning “glowing” or “scorcher.”

Southern pole star (South Star)

Polaris Australis (Sigma Octantis) is the closest naked-eye star to the south celestial pole, but at apparent magnitude 5.47 it is barely visible on a clear night, making it unusable for navigational purposes. It is a yellow giant 294 light years from Earth.

Southern circumpolar constellations include Phoenix, Grus, Tucana, Eridanus, Hydrus, Lupus, Cruz, Centaurus and Carina, among others.

Can you see Big Dipper in Southern Hemisphere? ›

For Southern Hemisphere dwellers who want to see the Big Dipper, you must go north of latitude 25 degrees South to see it in its entirety. Across the northern half of Australia, for instance, you can now just see the upside-down Dipper virtually scraping the northern horizon about an hour or two after sundown.

Orion's Belt is formed by three bright stars; Alnilam, Mintaka and Alnitak. Orion is in the southwestern sky if you are in the Northern Hemisphere or the northwestern sky if you are in the Southern Hemisphere. It is best seen between latitudes 85 and minus 75 degrees.

They have different constellations

The constellations located close to the North or South Celestial Pole can only be seen from their respective Hemisphere. Other constellations can be spotted from both Hemispheres, although their exact orientation and how high they appear in the sky depends on the observer's latitude.

What's different is that the Southern Hemisphere has much less land in it than the Northern Hemisphere, and especially no Sahara Desert. Which means there is much less dust at high altitudes, so there is less light scattering, and the blue colour is clearer. The sky is actually quite a bit darker too.

The reason Australian skies look bluer that the rest of the world is to do with the vegetation. Some parts of Australia have a high density of Eucalyptus trees and Australia's dense eucalyptus forests produce a blue hue in the air , the result of eucalyptus oil mixing with dust particles, water vapor and sunlight.

Currently Polaris is at a declination of a bit over 89 degrees, which means that no one south of 1 degree south latitude can see Polaris. That's almost all of the Southern hemisphere, let alone the South Pole. Polaris won't be the North Star forever, thanks to axial precession.

So why does Orion look "upside down"? - Because YOU have turned over, not because the Earth or the Sky has suddenly "flipped over". AND, since you are now looking North instead of South, you find that East is now on your RIGHT, and West is on your LEFT.

In the southern hemisphere shines Sirius, the brightest star of all the sky; flashing and scintillating it glows as a mighty diamond of the winter nights.

The Moon orbits near the equator of the Earth. People in different hemispheres see the moon in a slightly different way. In the Southern Hemisphere, people see the moon 'upside down' so the side which is shining (sunlit) seems the opposite from the Northern Hemisphere.

Just as in the Northern Hemisphere, the southern night sky is divided into constellations. There are 88 constellations in all; 32 of them are found in the Southern Hemisphere.

What are the three bright stars in the southern sky? ›

Orion's Belt or the Belt of Orion, also known as the Three Kings or Three Sisters, is an asterism in the constellation Orion. It consists of the three bright stars Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka.

From latitudes like those in the southern U.S., Canopus – the sky's 2nd-brightest star – appears as a bright light closer to the horizon than Sirius (the sky's brightest star).

Auroras in the southern hemisphere are known as the southern lights, or aurora australis. Both the northern lights and the southern lights are polar lights, or aurora polaris, because they occur near Earth's magnetic poles.

There is no bright star near the south celestial pole; the present southern polestar, Polaris Australis (also called σ Octantis), is only of the 5th magnitude and is thus barely visible to the naked eye.

The star that twinkles in several colours is Sirius. It is the only star that is bright enough that its light gets refracted into a tiny, tiny “rainbow” in a way that we can see. Sometimes your eye is struck by the red part, sometimes by the blue part.

Sirius can be seen in summer in the southern hemisphere, rising early in the morning before the sun, and in the evening when it sets after the sun. At the moment in the northern hemisphere, Sirius will rise above the horizon at about midnight, and …

One of the most recognizable constellations in the sky is Orion, the Hunter. Among Orion's best-known features is the “belt,” consisting of three bright stars in a line, each of which can be seen without a telescope. The westernmost star in Orion's belt is known officially as Delta Orionis.

The constellation Crux (also known as the asterism of the Southern Cross) is easily visible from the southern hemisphere at practically any time of year. For locations south of 34°S, Crux is circumpolar and thus always visible in the night sky.

Antarctica was already known to be an attractive location for a telescope because it is so far away from the interference of urban light, heat and smog, and it is also one of the least cloudy places on Earth.

Why are there more satellites in the southern hemisphere? ›

There are more than 6,500 satellites orbiting Earth in low-earth-orbit at altitudes ranging from about 200 km up to 1,000 km and the orbital velocities will vary according to altitude; the higher they are, the slower they travel. Therefore, it may only seem to be concentrated in the southern hemisphere.

When the sun is nearer the Earth, the Earth's surface receives a little more solar energy. The Earth is nearer the sun when it is summer in the southern hemisphere and winter in the northern hemisphere.

The bitter cold keeps winter wind to a minimum—and that provides stability for telescope observations as well. Using a telescope at the Pole can reduce noise not only from Earth's atmosphere, but from interstellar radiation and dust, too.

Research disciplines at McMurdo include astronomy, atmospheric sciences, biology, Earth science, environmental science, geology, glaciology, marine biology, oceanography, climate studies, and geophysics. Of the three U.S. Antarctic stations, Palmer is the only one that is accessed routinely during the winter.

Antarctica offers some pretty spectacular views of the night sky, like this image of the Milky Way taken on the Antarctic Peninsula. Now, researchers have found that a high-altitude site in East Antarctica may offer the world's clearest views of the celestial sphere.

The scientific studies in Antarctica are often ones that cannot usually be conducted elsewhere and help our understanding of global environmental issues including climate change, ozone depletion, sea level rise. Antarctica is also a barometer of climate change.

The Southern Hemisphere has more water mass and fewer land mass compared to the Northern Hemisphere. The continents making up the Southern Hemisphere include around 1/3 of Africa, all of Antarctica, most of South America and all of Australia.

People in the Southern Hemisphere cannot see the Little Dipper. But they have a few circumpolar constellations of their own. The constellations are still there during the day. You just can't see them because the Sun is so bright.

So why does Orion look "upside down"? - Because YOU have turned over, not because the Earth or the Sky has suddenly "flipped over". AND, since you are now looking North instead of South, you find that East is now on your RIGHT, and West is on your LEFT.

Westerlies in the southern hemisphere are stronger and persistent than in the northern hemisphere.

Is solar radiation harmful? ›

Excessive solar radiation can have harmful effects on human health, especially skin and eyes. Without solar radiation, there would be no life on Earth; moreover, it currently allows us to produce photovoltaic energy, which is essential in the fight against climate change.

The Southern Hemisphere has long been secondary in the global distribution of demographic, economic and political power, as it has less land than the Northern Hemisphere. In recent times however, countries such as Australia have made greater efforts to economically engage with those from their own hemisphere.

Pole Star is not visible from the southern hemisphere as it lies in line with the north pole. Pole star lies exactly above overhead if seen from north pole of the earth. So, we cannot see it from southern hemisphere beacuse of bulge in middle portion of the earth.

According to Nasa, During summer, Antarctica is on the side of Earth tilted toward the sun and is in constant sunlight. In the winter, Antarctica is on the side of Earth tilted away from the sun, causing the continent to be dark.

The Earth's curvature blocks South Pole from seeing most satellites in what is called geosynchronous orbit - a special orbit 22,236 miles above the equator, traveling in the direction of the Earth's rotation.