LMC - Our Galactic Neighbour

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LMC - Our Galactic Neighbour

[Public Domain] 12 May 2015 Dylan O'Donnell
CATEGORY : Astrophotography
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The Large Magellanic Cloud is easily visible with the naked eye from a dark backyard, and bigger than 370 full moons in the sky! It used to look like a classic “barred spiral” , like the ones they draw in comic books. It’s been disrupted though leaving it as a largely irregular shape.  Weirdly, it has a long thin gas “bridge” that connects it to the Small Magellanic Cloud. All together it’s like the LMC is walking the SMC on a leash like a little pet galaxy 🙂

Pictured here a small section of the LMC taken through my 9.25″ SCT. You can see the rigorous star factories at work with colourful red and blue nebula scattered throughout. I counted 11 nebula regions! Can you find any more?

21 x 180s exposures @ f2 (Hyperstar) & -15C
Stacked in Nebulosity 4.

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EQUIPMENT DYLAN USED
Here is some of the gear this photo was made with. Click for info