Focale · Field Log · Lat −42°

The sky the northern
hemisphere never sees.

For two months I'm imaging the southern sky from Tasmania — the Magellanic Clouds, the Carina region, the galactic core straight overhead. Get the free target guide now, and early access when Focale opens.

Dec −69° · What you've been missing

A different sky begins below the celestial equator.

From a dark site at 42° south, targets that never clear the horizon in Europe ride high all night. Here are a few of them — with the declination that explains why you've never shot them, and when to catch them on a winter trip.

  • The Magellanic Clouds — LMC & SMC
    DEC −69° / −73° · circumpolar from −42°

    Two satellite galaxies of our own, naked-eye bright. They never set from Tasmania — best framed in the pre-dawn hours during austral winter.

  • The Carina Nebula — NGC 3372
    DEC −59° · austral winter, low & westward

    Four times the size of Orion's, wrapped around the unstable star Eta Carinae. A southern showpiece with no northern equal.

  • Omega Centauri — NGC 5139
    DEC −47° · early-evening west

    The largest globular cluster in the galaxy — millions of stars in a single resolvable ball. From Europe it barely scrapes the murk.

  • Centaurus A — NGC 5128
    DEC −43° · early-evening west

    A galaxy split by a thick dust lane, the aftermath of a merger. Bright, structured, and a rewarding intermediate target.

  • The galactic core — Sagittarius
    DEC −29° · overhead on winter evenings

    The bulge of the Milky Way passes near the zenith here, not flattened against the horizon. The single biggest reason to point south.

  • Aurora Australis — if you're lucky
    Geomagnetic south · clear nights, dark sky

    Tasmania's latitude puts it under the southern auroral oval. No promises from the sky — but the field log will be watching.

The deal

One signup, three things.

Now

The southern-sky target guide

A field-ready PDF: what to shoot below the equator, the declinations, the seasons, and how to frame each one. Lands in your inbox on signup.

Jul – Sep

The field log from Tasmania

Real captures, the gear that worked, the nights that didn't. Sent occasionally while I'm under the southern sky — not a daily newsletter.

At launch

Early access & the launch price

When the full southern-sky product opens, you're first in line — and you get the launch price before anyone on Instagram.

Who's behind the lens

I'm Cédric — an astronomer by training, and the person building Arcsecond (a platform used by professional observatories) and Focale, a tool for amateur astrophotographers.

This isn't recycled advice. I'm going to spend two months actually doing it — chasing the southern sky from one of the darkest accessible places on Earth — and bringing you along while I build the product around it.

Before I leave on the 15th

Get the guide. Come south with me.

Free target guide now, field log through the trip, early access at launch.