Centaurus

One of the most magnificient constellations of the southern hemisphere. It stretches from RA = -30 degrees to RA = -65 degrees and DECL = 11h10m to little more than Decl= 15h, covering a quite large and very interesting part of the sky.
At the northern border Hydra is located. At the western border you find Antlia, Vela and Carina from north to south. The southern border neighbours to Musca, Crux, which is nearly embedded into Centaurus and Circinus at the south eastern border. Finally to the east the neighbour constellations are Lupus and Libra.
Centaurus is best known for its brightest star alpha Cen which is the second closest star to our sun. If one draws a line from alpha Cen to beta Cen (also called Hadar) and follows that line it leads directly to the Southern Cross stars beta Cru and delta Cru. This can be used to locate the true Southern Cross as another "False Cross" is formed by i Car, eta Car, delta Vel and kappa Vel.
But there a more interesting objects to an observer and even simple star sweeping can be rewarding as the Milky Way runs through the southern part of the constellation. Especially the regions around alpha Cen and beta Cen are magnificient: the clouds of stars of the Milky Way are brilliant, yet sometimes obscured by clouds of interstellar dusts, which makes observing even more fascinating.

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