Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A dark nebula, one of the nearest to Earth, that appears in the southern Milky Way.
  • noun A similar dark nebula in the Northern Hemisphere near the constellation Cygnus.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A sack made of strong coarse material for containing or carrying coal.
  • noun A sailors' term for a dark place in the Galaxy south of Crux. Also called the hole in the sky.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Astron.) Any one of the spaces in the Milky Way which are very black, owing to the nearly complete absence of stars; esp., the large space near the Southern Cross sometimes called the Black Magellanic Cloud.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • “Planet Killer” is an astronomical murder mystery set aboard the Martian i.e., human starship MSV Procyon as it is dispatched by Martian Space Force on its maiden voyage in the year 2191 to a destination called the Coalsack.

    Archive 2009-02-01 Paul 2009

  • The Coalsack nebula also fits with the description of 'near the galactic plane' it's only visible in optical wavelengths because it's shillouetted by the milkyway itself.

    Herschel Sees Hidden Stars in the Southern Cross | Universe Today 2009

  • “Planet Killer” is an astronomical murder mystery set aboard the Martian i.e., human starship MSV Procyon as it is dispatched by Martian Space Force on its maiden voyage in the year 2191 to a destination called the Coalsack.

    “Planet Killer,” a new short story by Ges Seger and Kevin Grazier Paul 2009

  • They would have bought the pieces here and there—and then when they've got everything together, they have it all shipped out to some backwater shipyard down in the bottom of the Sag Arm, or maybe tucked away in the Coalsack—we hear rumors about places like that.

    Doctor’s Orders Diane Duane 2000

  • No point in letting them all die of old age before they get back to the Coalsack with the news.

    Doctor’s Orders Diane Duane 2000

  • And then they'd go on, faithfully leaving similar letters and similar impressions on Krim, and Lohala, and Tralee, and Famagusta, and throughout the Coalsack stars until the stock of addressed missives ran out.

    The Pirates of Ersatz Murray Leinster 1935

  • But the Coalsack area was a space-mark good for half

    The Pirates of Ersatz Murray Leinster 1935

  • Well, maybe Bill has been down to th 'corner playin' a game iv spoil-five with his old frind Coalsack, an 'has paid no attintion to th' Sons iv Rest.

    Mr. Dooley: In the Hearts of His Countrymen Finley Peter Dunne 1901

  • "They had radio and radar twenty years ago, when Rock Morgan was here in the Coalsack.

    Space Viking Piper, H. Beam 1963

  • We want to make a treaty for you to take over and defend as much territory as you're able to, against some characters heading this way from the Coalsack region. "

    A Matter of Importance Murray Leinster 1935

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