details big dipper and crux

[DQC]

Hi,

Can anybody help me with a picture of the big dipper and crux (southern cross). All i can find are photo's or drawings that don't properly show details.
I am especially interested in the distances between stars, size of stars and possibly colour if there is any difference.

Cheers,

DQC

[rogerg (Roger)]

I could point you to 100's of photo's of the southern cross, but I think the thing you're really after is planetarium software so you can find out accurate information. This is a good free one:
http://www.stargazing.net/astropc/

For photo's of Crux, well...
http://www.rogergroom.com/rogergroom...ry.jsp?Item=11
http://www.rogergroom.com/rogergroom...ry.jsp?Item=10

Roger.

[DQC]

Thanks Rogerg,

It doesn't have to be a photo, as long as I can see the proportion of the stars related to each other. and the size of the stars in relation to each other.
All I can find are very small pictures from which i can't really get this info.

Cheers,

DQC

[Dujon]

DQC,

Try this for size:

http://www.teara.govt.nz/EarthSeaAnd...hernCross/3/en

The stars of The Cross are a long, long way from us.

Given that I'd die before I got to our sun (even if I hopped into the fastest car I could get my hands on, was well stocked with food and was impervious to heat and gravitational effects) which is a mere - approximately - 8.5 light minutes away imagine the distance to some of the Crux stars.

I find it hard to comprehend that sort of distance even though, relatively speaking, the stars of Crux are close to us.