Kappa Crucis

The Kappa Crucis star cluster nicknamed the Jewel Box in reference to the multicoloured flashes of the stars comparable to a collection of precious stones is visible to the naked eye in the Southern Hemisphere and for example from the anonymous hangar where Bernardo Riedel a legend of Brazilian astronomy works in the Belo Horizonte suburb This discreet man begins his day by listening to the messages left on his answering machine Bernardo have you seen the latest images of Pluto to birdsongs or to Beethoven He makes telescopes polishes lenses gets annoyed with administrative hassles or sits on the terrace in order to float in space with the help of his binoculars