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A pole star is a visible star that is approximately aligned with the axis of rotation of an astronomical body; that is, a star whose apparent position is close to one of the celestial poles. On Earth , a pole star would lie directly overhead when viewed from the North or the South Pole .
The south celestial pole over the Very Large Telescope [3] Locating the south celestial pole. The south celestial pole is visible only from the Southern Hemisphere. It lies in the dim constellation Octans, the Octant. Sigma Octantis is identified as the south pole star, more than one degree away from the pole, but with a magnitude of 5.5 it is ...
The negative pole is the pole toward which the thumb points when the fingers of the left hand are curled in its direction of rotation. This change was needed because the poles of some asteroids and comets precess rapidly enough for their north and south poles to swap within a few decades using the invariable plane definition.
The south celestial pole currently lacks a bright star to mark its position, but over time precession also will cause bright stars to become South Stars. As the celestial poles shift, there is a corresponding gradual shift in the apparent orientation of the whole star field, as viewed from a particular position on Earth.
Its declination of -88° 57′ 23″ places it 1° 2′ 37" from the South Celestial Pole. An even closer star BQ Octantis of magnitude +6.9 lies 10' from the South Pole as of 2016. Although not visible to the naked eye, it is easily visible in most polar 'scopes. (It will lie its closest to the South Pole, namely 9', in the year 2027.
Sigma Octantis is a solitary [9] star in the Octans constellation that forms the pole star of the Southern Hemisphere.Its name is also written as σ Octantis, abbreviated as Sigma Oct or σ Oct, and it is officially named Polaris Australis (/ p oʊ ˈ l ɛər ɪ s ɔː ˈ s t r eɪ l ɪ s /). [10]
Chart of the southern constellations from declination –40° to the south celestial pole by the Jesuit missionary François Noël published in Acta Eruditorum, 1711.. From the South Pole, in good visibility conditions, the Southern Sky features over 2,000 fixed stars that are easily visible to the naked eye, while about 20,000 to 40,000 with the aided eye.
The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is the point in the Southern Hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True South Pole to distinguish from the Magnetic South Pole .