A wreath, a crown, a wheel of torment, a boomerang. The constellation Corona Australis has represented them all in different traditions. Its stars are dim, but its stories are vivid.

The Starry Crowns – Corona Australis

The Coronet Cluster is an open cluster of stars. A cluster is a group of stars, formed at about the same time, which is gravitationally bound together. In an open cluster the gravitational attraction is weak, and it breaks up more easily than, say, the globular clusters which are tightly bound and can last for billions of years.

The Coronet Cluster is a good place for studying the early stages of star formation, because the region is a stellar nursery. It's much closer than the famous Orion nebula.

Here's a beautiful picture of stars and dust less than 500 light years away in Corona Australis. There's a lot going on here.

The blue clouds are reflection nebulae. They reflect light from energetic stars, with the blue end of the spectrum being preferentially reflected and the red absorbed.

The dust clouds obscure baby stars that are forming and also block light from background Milky Way stars.

Image Credit & Copyright: Eric Coles & Martin Pugh