If you live in the
northern hemisphere, you may have learned how to
locate the North Star,
Polaris, in the night sky.
It can be used to find north, and it /day/proximately marks the
northern celestial pole.
If you live in the southern hemisphere, there is no bright star marking the southern celestial pole, but the
Southern Cross can be used to find south.
The
featured image was taken in
Padre Bernardo (
GO),
Brazil.
It shows the apparent motion of the stars around the apparently empty southern celestial pole over 2 hours, on August 20, 2018.
Each star takes
about 24 hours to make a complete turn around the pole in the sky.
Padre Bernardo is located in the
Cerrado region, a tropical savanna that occupies most of central Brazil and supports rich
biodiversity.
The barren branch that apparently supports this sky wheel of rotating stars is a common sight there in the
dry season during the southern winter.