Deep dive: Unfrequented part of SMC near NGC 330

[Placidus]

Looking for something new and different in the centre of the SMC. Added 6 more hours last night. The tiny raggedy globular cluster at top left is NGC 330. The other structures are very faint, and the usual catalogues show nothing. (Any ID's welcome). Field: 30'arc, north up. Yellow: H-alpha 5hrs; Blue: OIII 5hrs, in 1hr unbinned subs. Various large, irregular bubble-shapes suggesting past stellar winds and bangs, and strong separation of H-alpha (general dense stuff) from OIII (strongly ionised thin stuff) are typical for around here. Of interest is the gold filigree of shock-front complex at about 1 o'clock from centre. Reminiscent of a disrupted SNR. The filigree is visible in [SII] (not shown) but otherwise the area lacks [SII] so we didn't include it. Let your imagination loose and see tropical fish or animal faces. Aspen 16M on CDK20. Bigger version (600K) here (http://mikeberthonjones.smugmug.com/Category/Star-Forming-Regions/i-qWZRK52/0/X3/0066%20NGC%20300%20etc%20SMC%20Ha%2 05hrs%20OIII%205hrs-X3.jpg). Best, Mike n Trish.

[RickS]

There's lots of great stuff in those Magellanic clouds! This site, maintained by an IISer, is a good reference: http://cloudsofmagellan.net.au/

Cheers,
Rick.

[SimmoW]

great shot, not enough pics of this very interesting area

[rustigsmed]

so much to see such a dynamic area, a great view.

cheers

russ

[Placidus]

Thanks much, Rick, those diagrams were very useful for finding some Henize objects in some of our other photos. The two brightest blobs around 4pm in our current shot (00:50:44, -72:48:10 and 00:50:32, -72:53:12 J2K) are visible on the cloudsofmagellan chart six, but are not named. The chart labels a tiny open cluster well to the left of these blobs and inconspicuous in narrowband as Kron 34. That was fun!

[Bassnut]

Excellent Mike, unusual view.

[Andre27]

Fantastic, definitely something different.

[Ross G]

A great looking photo Mike.

Amazing detail!

Ross.

[mithrandir]

Mike, there are other Kron objects in your field - K29 and K31. I found them using astrometry.net, Aladin and catalog J/AJ/119/1214/table3

There are lots of other catalogs of the SMC (and LMC) to label objects.

[Placidus]

Rick, Simon, Russell, Fred, Andre, Ross, Andrew,

Thanks muchly for encouragement. Super-obscure objects can meet an uncertain reception.

Andrew, thanks for the additional Kron open cluster findings.

Very best,
Mike n Trish