Combination of 30, 2 second exposures, SBIG ST9XE CCD camera.
50mm f/2.0 Nikkon lens.
Probably the most famous of all the southern constellations is Crux Australis - The Southern Cross. Although the smallest of all the constellations, it has the highest concentration of bright stars of any constellation. Three of the 4 stars forming the cross are brighter than Belatrix, the third brightest star in Orion.
The Southern Cross is on the right of centre, while the dark region is the obscuring dust cloud known as the "Coaksack".
The region around the Cross is very rich in interesting deep-sky objects of all types. Many of these are illustrated in the film images here.
In this image, the Southern Cross is just to the right of centre. The large dark region close to the centre is the famous dark nebula, the Coal Sack. On the eastern (left) side of the Coal Sack is the emission nebula, Ced 122.
