Southern Star

The southern star is a very bright star visible from the entirety of the Southern hemisphere of planet Earth. It is sometimes used as a symbol in some flags of countries south of the Ecuator, and has been a very important aspect of mythology, marine navigation, religion and culture since the dawn of civilization.
The star itself is the lesser part of a binary system, the other part being the Trinidad Star.
The binary system composed of the Southern Star and Trinidad Star is the most luminous and brightest thing visible from the southern pole, and is visible from the entirely of the southern hemisphere year-round. It is also visible from 0 to 18 degrees latitude north in some ocasions of the year, under certain atmospheric conditions and seasons.

Spiritualism

Since the dawn of civilization, the star has been thought of as a divine entity by many groups around the globe. Gua Tribes in South America, amongst others, considered this star to be their main God, and they would usually sacrifice big animals to this God.

History

The star was first described as a blue dwarf by Sir Isaac Newton, who also correctly predicted the star to have unusual characteristics in terms of luminosity and shape.
In the 18th century book "Stars on our sky", by Carlos Trinidad, the star would be correctly described as the lesser of 2 stars in a binary system, the other part being the Trinidad Star.

Credits:
Top image: Milky Way Magellanic Clouds by Tomas Sobek - via Flickr "Milky-Way-Magellanic-Clouds-Tomas-Sobek-via-Flickr.png"

Top image: South Star depicted on the top right side of the image

Alternative Name(s)

Big Blue, Trinidad Star

Type

Star