Grab your telescope tonight and explore the doubles of Musca.

By Ross Gould

MUSCA, THE FLY, is a small constellation immediately south of the Southern Cross, overshadowed by its more famous and striking neighbour. Musca partly overlaps the Milky Way, however the Coal Sack intrudes into it in the north, and some areas have dust lanes winding through them producing regions with few stars. Nevertheless it has some fine double stars. The pre-dominance of B and A spectral types means most of these pairs are white, not coloured.

Read the rest of this article in the May/June issue of Australian Sky & Telescope.