Stars of the Southern Skies
WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE SOUTHERN SKY, you look towards the galactic centre which has a bug population of stars. As a result, the Milky way appears Brighter in the southern sky than in the northern sky. The southern sky is rich in nebulae and stars clusters. It contains the large and small Magellanic Clouds, which are the two nearest galaxies to our own. Stars make dixed patterns in the sky called Constellations. However the constellations are only apparent grouping of stars, since the distances to the stars in a constellations may vary enourmously. The shapes of constellations may change over many thousands of years due to the relative motions of the stars. The movement of the constellations across the sky is due to the Earth's motion in space. The daily rotation of the earth cause the constellation to move across the sky from east to west, and orbit of the Earth around the sun cause different areas of sky to be visible in different seasons. The visibility of areas of sky also depends on the location of the observer. For instance stars near the celestial equator may be seen from either the hemispher at some time during the year, whereas stars close to the celestial poles can never be seen from the opposite hemisphere
