Sky & Telescope - April 2019 - 4

SPECTRUM

by Peter Tyson

Southern Charms

The Essential Guide to Astronomy
Founded in 1941 by Charles A. Federer, Jr.
and Helen Spence Federer

SKY & TELESCOPE is Northern Hemisphere-centric for one reason

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A PR I L 2 019 * SK Y & TELESCOPE

EDITORIAL
Editor in Chief Peter Tyson
Senior Editor Alan M. MacRobert
Science Editor Camille M. Carlisle
News Editor Monica Young
Associate Editors S. N. Johnson-Roehr, Sean Walker
Observing Editor Diana Hannikainen
Project Coordinator Bud Sadler
Senior Contributing Editors
J. Kelly Beatty, Robert Naeye, Roger W. Sinnott
Contributing Editors
Howard Banich, Jim Bell, Trudy Bell, John E. Bortle,
Greg Bryant, Thomas A. Dobbins, Alan Dyer,
Tom Field, Tony Flanders, Ted Forte, Sue French,
Steve Gottlieb, David Grinspoon, Shannon Hall,
Ken Hewitt-White, Johnny Horne, Bob King,
Emily Lakdawalla, Rod Mollise, James Mullaney,
Donald W. Olson, Jerry Oltion, Joe Rao, Dean Regas,
Fred Schaaf, Govert Schilling, William Sheehan,
Mike Simmons, Mathew Wedel, Alan Whitman,
Charles A. Wood
Contributing Photographers
P. K. Chen, Akira Fujii, Robert Gendler,
Babak Tafreshi

ART & DESIGN
Art Director Terri Dubé
Illustration Director Gregg Dinderman
Illustrator Leah Tiscione

ESO / M.-R. CIONI / VISTA M AG ELL A NIC CLOUD SURV E Y

and one reason only: Most of our subscribers reside on that half
of the globe, primarily in the U.S. or Canada. That's why, when it
comes to observing coverage, we focus largely on what you can see
in northern skies and regretfully leave the southern heavens to our
counterparts at Australian Sky & Telescope.
But sometimes we can't stand it anymore and just have to delve into those
magniﬁcent austral skies. All serious amateurs know that the ﬁ rmament as seen
from south of the equator has treasures unmatched in the North. The Carina
nebula. 47 Tucanae. The Coalsack. The Magellanic Clouds. Northern Hemisphere observers salivate when they think of these and other southern treats.
In this issue, we head south to scrutinize several of them. In his "Constellation Close-up" on page 22, Tony Flanders reconnoiters two constellations
practically synonymous with the southern celestial hemisphere: Centaurus, the
Centaur, and Crux, the Southern Cross. Within those contiguous regions lie
some of the most emblematic of southern wonders, from
the Jewel Box, sprinkled with twinkling gems, to Omega
Centauri, the most luminous globular cluster of all.
On page 34, Javier Barbuzano investigates Alpha Centauri, the second star in our three-part series that began
with Polaris in last month's issue. The binary at the heart
of this three-star system is the brightest star in the entire
sidereal vault after Sirius and Canopus. But that's not its
The jaw-dropping
greatest allure. The reason Alpha Cen draws observers like
globular cluster 47
the Sirens did Odysseus's crew is that, at only about 4.3
Tucanae
light-years away, it's the closest stellar system to our own.
In part because of Alpha Cen's proximity, lots of cutting-edge science is taking place on it, as Barbuzano describes. One of the most compelling questions
astronomers have is whether this neighboring system, which bears two stars
that aren't all that different from our own, hosts any planets with liquid water
on the surface - the sine qua non for life as we know it.
As a digestif to our southern repast, we offer an appraisal of an outreach
event in South Africa during last July's total lunar eclipse that was almost too
successful. Find out why in Carl Lindemann's story on page 84.
Incidentally, we're proud to report that S&T has subscribers across the Southern Hemisphere. As of mid-January, these include readers in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Christmas Island, Ecuador, French Polynesia, Kenya, New
Caledonia, New Zealand, Paraguay, Peru, South Africa,
Uruguay, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. We hope you southernhalf readers especially enjoy this month's foray into your
sumptuous skies.

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Sky & Telescope - April 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky & Telescope - April 2019