In the early hours of January 1st, 2014 even the bright city light from Johannesburg CBD couldn’t hide away majestic view of the Southern Cross and surrounding deep sky favorites, rising above the South. The latest addition to the Southern night sky, Nova Cen 2013 can be clearly seen through binoculars and photographed with any digital camera. Through the year I will often return to this vast area of the night sky and share my images and interesting facts about some most prominent Deep sky objects, surrounding the constellation Crux, or commonly known as the Southern Cross.

I thought, this will be a perfect photo to start our Astronomical 2014 and get your binoculars and cameras pointing South.