Carina, the Keel of Argo (the Ship), runs through the middle of
the picture. South is down and to the right.
The bright star just to the right of center is
Aspidiske, Iota Car. Miaplacidus lies down and to the left of
Aspidiske, while Avior lies down and to the right.
Northern Carina, with Canopus (Alpha Car), is off the picture to the right.
Vela is to the top,
Centaurus to the upper left, Volans down toward the
bottom.
To the right of center is the "False Cross," which mimics the
true Southern Cross (
the False Cross made of Aspidiske and Avior in
Carina and Markeb and Delta in Vela). N Vel is just up and to the left of the
right edge of the False Cross.
Massive Eta Car is the bright "star" in the fuzzy Carina
Nebula that is up and to thr left. Much of the light comes from
the cluster Tr 16, in which Eta is embedded.
The Cepheid variable "l" ("el") Car is to the left and just down
from Aspidiske, while Theta and the open cluster IC 2602 are
to the immediate left of "l". Look down and to the left of "l"
to find Upsilon and then further down and to the left
to see Omega. Chi Car is just below the right center edge.
The open cluster IC 2391 is just up and to the right of Delta, while
NGC 2561 is down and to the right of Avior. Close together, q then p Car
are just up and to the left of Aspidiske, while "a Car" is just to the
right of it.Image by Greg Dimijian.
