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Show the direction of this region of the sky on the Galactic Map.

Constellation of the southern sky

Genitive	Octantis
Abbreviation	Oct
Constellation Family	La Caille
Celestial Quadrant	SQ1, SQ2, SQ3, SQ4
Right Ascension	Circumpolar
Declination	-75.4° to -90.0°
Area (sq deg)	291
Brightest Star	Nu Octantis
Optimum Visibility	Always visible from southern latitudes
Notes	The polar constellation of Octans contains the Southern Celestial Pole, and thus always lies southward of the observer. Unlike its northern equivalent of Ursa Minor, however, Octans contains no stars brighter than fourth magnitude, and no feature like Polaris in the north that might help to fix the exact position of the pole.

Octans' place in the galaxy. Because Octans contains the Southern Celestial Pole, this diagram also shows the Earth's orientation with respect to the galaxy as a whole.

The Southern Celestial Pole lies in Octans, just as the Northern Celestial Pole lies in Ursa Minor. Unlike Polaris in the north, though, no bright star lies near the Southern Pole. This hasn't prevented the star Sigma Octantis being rather optimistically named 'Polaris Australis' or 'The Southern Pole Star', but it is in fact only magnitude +5.5, and almost invisible to the naked eye.

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