Sigma Octantis Totally Explained

Everything about Sigma Octantis totally explained

Southern Pole Star

Its position near the southern celestial pole makes it the southern hemisphere's current pole star and counterpart to Polaris, the current North Star. To an observer in the southern hemisphere, Sigma Octantis appears almost motionless and all the other stars in the Southern sky appear to rotate around it. It is part of a small "half hexagon" shape. It is over a degree away from the true south pole, and the south celestial pole is moving away from it due to precession of the equinoxes.
Sigma Octantis is sometimes called Polaris Australis, or South Star, though it has never been officially recognised as such and this name is certainly a modern invention.

Locating Sigma Octantis

The star itself, it's a faint star—at magnitude 5.5 it's barely visible to the naked eye—which makes it a rather poor pole star, especially by comparison with the much brighter and easily visible Polaris. This is why the Crux constellation is often preferred for the role of determining the position of the South Celestial Pole.
Once Sigma Octantis' approximate position has been determined, either by the major stars in Octans or using the Southern Cross method, it can be positively verified using an asterism. Sigma Octantis, Kappa Octantis, Tau Octantis and Upsilon Octantis are all stars of around magnitude 5.5, and form the distinctive shape of a trapezoid.

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