The Southern Pole Star, or rather a star with a brightness of 5.4 magnitude, is visible only exceptionally with the naked eye on clear nights. It is so faint that it hardly helps us at all in finding the southern celestial pole. To determine it, the longer arm of the Southern Cross is used, which points to it, or the pair of Magellanic Clouds, which form an approximately equilateral triangle with it. Sigma Octantis is located 270 light-years away from Earth.