The constellation Centaurus holds another marvel, to the left of Alpha Centauri. Omega Centauri is the largest and finest globular cluster in the Milky Way. With a mass equal to as many as ten million stars, it's ten times as massive as most other large globular clusters.

Seen from Earth, it covers an area of sky equal in size to the full moon. To the naked eye, it looks like a fuzzy cloud, but a telescope reveals thousands of points of light, often crowded too close together to resolve into individual stars.

The stars in Omega Centauri didn't all form at the same time, indicating it might be the remnant of a small galaxy that merged with the Milky Way sometime in the distant past.

To see this beautiful cluster, center it on the screen and then use the zoom buttons to get a closer view.