Caption: This famous cluster of young bright stars is an open cluster visible to the unaided eye alongside Mimosa, the second brightest star in the Southern Cross. Sir John Herschel described this rich cluster as "a casket of variously colored precious stones" as he observed it from Cape Town in the 1830s. The bright orange star is Kappa Crucis, a very large, (hence very luminous) quite young star in its red giant stage, which paradoxically indicates that its life is drawing to a close. The cluster lies 7800 light years away in the direction of the Southern Cross and is only visible from southern latitudes.
Copyright: (c) 1977 Anglo-Australian Telescope Board, photograph by David Malin
