This frames the entire Small Magellanic Cloud, a member of the Local Group of galaxies and a companion of our Milky Way Galaxy. While not as richly e
This frames the entire Small Magellanic Cloud, a member of the Local Group of galaxies and a companion of our Milky Way Galaxy. While not as richly endowed with nebulas and clusters as its nearby companion, the Large Magellanic Cloud, the SMC is still a wonderful region to explore. However, the two most notable objects in this scene do not belong to the SMC, but are closer objects that just happen to lie near it in the sky in the constellation of Tucana. At right is the spectacular globular cluster NGC 104 or 47 Tucanae, perhaps the finest globular in the sky. At top is what is dubbed as the "Mini 47 Tuc," or NGC 362, as through a telescope it looks like a smaller version of 47 Tuc, with a similar compressed core. Above and below 47 Tuc, respectively, is the small globular NGC 121 and large open cluster Kron 3. This portrait was taken with the aid of a dual-narrowband filter to emphasize the red and cyan nebulas embedded in the main body of the SMC but also outlying such as at left. The brightest and largest cyan nebula in the SMC is NGC 362, with the large star cluster NGC 395 to the left but here obscured by a cyan nebula. The smaller star cluster NGC 330 lies below NGC 346. The reddish nebula below and left of the main region of the SMC is NGC 456. Farther out is the odd NGC 602 with a blue appendage to it. In between is a round nebula not labeled on charts I had. Indeed the various atlases I consulted differed in the identities of the objects. At the lower southern end of the SMC is a confusion of small nebulas: NGC 294, 267, 261, 241, 248. The field is by 5º. This is a blend of: a stack of 8 x 10-minute exposures at ISO 3200 through an IDAS NBZ narrowband fiter (that passes just H-alpha and Oxygen III wavelengths) and a stack of 12 x 5 minute unfiltered exposures at ISO 800, all with the Sharpstar 61mm EDPH III refractor at and the filter-modified (by ) Canon R, on the Astro-Physics AP400 mount autoguided with the MGEN3 autoguid
Size: 6720px × 4470px
Photo credit: © Alan Dyer / VWPics / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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