[11] It is part of the central bar of the prominent letter A-shaped asterism at the centre of the cluster.

The cluster is just to the south-east of β Crucis, the lefthand star of the Southern Cross.

Despite its low temperature, it is 46,600 times the luminosity of the sun, due to its very large size.

[7] Photometry from the Hipparcos satellite mission showed that DU Crucis varies in brightness with an amplitude of 0.44 magnitudes.

[13] No periodicity could be detected in the variations and it was classified as a slow irregular variable of type Lc, indicating a supergiant.