Observation
The Jewel Box cluster is regarded as one of the finest objects in the southern sky. It exhibits subtle colours, aside from the vivid red supergiant Kappa Crucis from which the cluster takes its name. It is visible to the naked eye as a hazy object of the fourth magnitude. The Jewel Box cluster can be easily located using the star Beta Crucis as a guide, and appears as a fourth magnitude object. The three brightest members of the cluster lie in a straight line known as the 'traffic lights' due to their varying colours.
The Jewel Box cluster is impressive when viewed with binoculars or a small telescope, but even more so in a large telescope because the background nebulosity becomes more prominent.
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—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
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