Two Galaxies You Can See With Your Own Eyes.

 Download Full Resolution (1200x797) 982KB 7,989

Two Galaxies You Can See With Your Own Eyes.

[Public Domain] 6 Mar 2015 Dylan O'Donnell
CATEGORY : Astrophotography
7,990 others viewed this post.

The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC and SMC) really do look like clouds. When I point them out to people they often say “Wait, I thought they were clouds?”.  In fact they are entire galaxies. The larger has at least 60 globular clusters, 400 planetary nebulae, and 700 open clusters, along with hundreds of thousands of giant and supergiant stars.

If you are lucky enough to live in the Southern Hemisphere, and your Northern Hemisphere friends reckon they are pretty cool because they can see Andromeda with their telescopes, remind them that we can see TWO massive galaxies with our own eyes right from our backyards.

And while our naked eye view of these galaxies is impressive, If we lived over there and looked back at the Milky Way (where we live), you would see it stretch brightly across a massive part of the sky – as big as SEVENTY full moons. Their view of us must be spectacular indeed.

Image taken with a Canon 70D DSLR, 8 exposures @ 30s / 1600 ISO / 11mm wide angle / F2.8 / Stacked in Nebulosity.

 Download Full Resolution (1200x797) 982KB