Now we move south.

Click here to view the sky from a latitude of 30 degrees south.

From this vantage point, the large area of the sky that includes the Southern Cross is circumpolar. Notice that there is no bright southern equivalent to the North Star, and that the sky rotates around an empty, starless point. The few stars near the south celestial pole are very faint, and can only barely be seen in perfect conditions, making them almost impossible to use for navigation.

Click here to face north and you will see familiar northern constellations in unfamiliar positions (unless you live in the Southern Hemisphere); some are upside down and others are on their side.

The sun still rises in the east, since the Earth still rotates in the same direction, but here the sun moves across the northern sky not the southern sky, as it does in North America.