Coalsack


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Coalsack:

see Milky WayMilky Way,
the galaxy of which the sun and solar system are a part, seen as a broad band of light arching across the night sky from horizon to horizon; if not blocked by the horizon, it would be seen as a circle around the entire sky.
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Coalsack

(kohl -sak) (Southern Coalsack) A prominent dark nebula about 170 parsecs away in the southern constellation Crux. It has an angular diameter of 6° and can be seen with the naked eye as a completely black shape silhouetted against the background of the Milky Way.
Collins Dictionary of Astronomy © Market House Books Ltd, 2006

Coalsack

[′kōl‚sak]
(astronomy)
An area in one of the brighter regions of the Southern Milky Way which to the naked eye appears entirely devoid of stars and hence dark with respect to the surrounding Milky Way region.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
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References in periodicals archive ?
This was interpreted by Fredrick (2008:70) as an 'emu sitting under a tea-tree', the emu being gao-ergi in the Coalsack. Parker and Lang (1905:73) expand on this to describe it as the first Minggab, or spirit tree, which was the medium for the movement to the sky of the first man on Earth to die.
The astronomy of the Kamilaroi and Euahlayi peoples and their neighbours
The Coalsack looked like a black stain in the sky--a WOW moment indeed."
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Coalsack had run creditably in a number of big races.
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In Crux is the famous Coalsack dark cloud, which is about 5[degrees] across.
Observing the Milky Way, Part III Perseus to Puppis & Beyond: the winter Milky Way is faint and vague, but it's adorned with some of the finest clusters and nebulae in the sky
Worth Viewing (binoculars or telescope) Object Type Con Orion Nebula BrtN Ori Tarantula Nebula BrtN Dor Herschel's Jewel Box OpCl Cru Eta Carina Nebula BrtN Car Omega Centauri GlCl Cen Large Magellanic Cloud Glxy Men M41 OpCl Cma M48 OpCl Hya Coalsack DrkN Cru Fornax A Glxy For M83 Glxy Hya Centaurus A Glxy Cen Full details on pages 82 to 84 Constellations Day Constellation 01 Leo 11 Ursa Major 12 Crater 28 Corvus 30 Crux 31 Musca Date of midnight culmination.
Monthly sky diary
At a distance of about 600 light-years, the Coalsack is relatively nearby and is easily the most conspicuous object of its kind in the entire sky.
The Coalsack nebula
The starry background that enhances the Coalsack's appearances is due, of course, to the Milky Way arcing across this region of the sky.
Fly me to the cross: the Milky Way gets top billing in June's evening sky
I spent a memorable hour scanning the heavens from Alpha and Beta Centauri through the Coalsack and the Southern Cross and on to Eta Carinae.
Adventure on the high seas
I enjoyed some of the best sights the southern sky has to offer: the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, the Southern Cross, the Coalsack, the Eta Carinae Nebula, and the great globular clusters 47 Tucanae and Omega Centauri.
Out of Africa
I saw the Eta Carinae complex, the Jewel Box Cluster, the Coalsack, Alpha Centauri, and a dozen other major southern deep-sky objects.
Stargazing from the Arctic wastes of a tropical paradise
The Coalsack marks the head of an Australian Aboriginal constellation, the Emu.
A cross, a box, and a sack
Eventually the full majesty of the southern sky unfolded, with Alpha and Beta Centauri, the Southern Cross, the Jewel Box and the Coalsack, the Eta Carinae Nebula, and the Magellanic Clouds all forming an exquisite backdrop to a storm of meteors.
A perfect storm

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