Stephen James O'Meara's Secret Sky: The Christmas Cross: a matter of life and death
December 2009: The Northern Cross sets in the west-northwest as Christians celebrate Jesus' birth.
Contributed by Stephen James O'Meara
Published:
October 26, 2009
 The Northern Cross is a roughly 20°-long asterism made up of the brightest stars in the constellation Cygnus the Swan. Its form lies atop the Great Rift, a series of overlapping non-luminous molecular dust clouds located between the solar system and the Sagittarius Arm of the Milky Way. To the naked eye, they divide the bright band of the Milky Way lengthwise through Cygnus.
Photo by John Chumack |
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