Generating stars in the SMC

[strongmanmike]

Graced with the presence of the one and only and IIS moderator, Sir David Hough and blessed with only one good useable night out of three, (the other two were tantalising with patchy cloud but a bit too windy, even in a dome), this is the result from the mini star party up at Eagleview over the past weekend.

The seeing was pretty variable and only at acceptable Levels for Eagleview (FWHM= 1.9" - 2.3") but meah, better than nothing.

The SMC often gets overlooked for the grandeur and Mr Squiggle like spread on offer by its nearby big brother, the LMC but in fact the SMC is actually blessed with its own interesting and quite extensive menagerie of star forming, "bubbles" that can make a nice field to image.

I wanted to get a complete data set on an object in one night as a memento of the fun night with Houghy and Phil under the pristine Tinderry skies, so this is a hybrid true colour image, augmented with Halpha and OIII data, of only a modest total integration time (6.5hrs) but I hope you like it :)

NGC 267 region (reminds me of a pathology petri dish after a few days :P):

Pbase (https://pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/174871989/original)

AstroBin (https://www.astrobin.com/2hml6m/)

Cheers

Mike

[CaptainCook]

Heres what I got from the city...A four panel mosaic using OSC, L-extreme at f/6 360mm (2.1 arcs/pix) from B7.


https://images.cdn-files-a.com/uploads/5360032/2000_665d3df65e89f.jpg?width=1600

Nice to see some SMC interest!

[strongmanmike]

Aka, SMC love :love:

Mike

[TrevorW]

A lot going on in there :)

[CoolhandJo]

Thats tremendous and detailed. Love the colour so natural

[strongmanmike]

Yeah its a unique looking field really, star forming in the SMC seems to have mostly formed roundish bubbles, as opposed to the big varied nebulae, of all types of wacky shapes and sizes, in the LMC..? Interesting, must be age related..?

Mike

[Ryderscope]

Ah, very good. We never get tired of wandering around the SMC. So many twists and turns and bubbles and different colours. A fine display. Thanks for sharing Mike.

[Dave882]

Wow Mike that's just an explosion of beautiful colour. Kind of like a glitter bomb went off in a paint shop.... Magnificent!

[strongmanmike]

Thanks Rod, the SMC does seem a little boring at first glance but a cool looking image can be had with a little planning, just nowhere near the options thrown up by the LMC, which is a veritable mine field of cool FOV's :)



Thanks Dave and what a great analogy, spot on!...probably a little more flattering than my pathology department forensic petri dish description...:question: :lol:

Mike

[Startrek]

Mike,
Superb image once again from above the clouds , can’t beat natural colour in AP
Looked like a top weekend with some IIS Astro buddy’s

Cheers
Martone

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Marty :thumbsup: and yes, after years of attending the wonderful Wiruna (https://www.asnsw.com/wiruna) the premier dark sky site of the ASNSW (an awesome spot), it's pretty exciting to realise, bluudy hell, I now have my own "premier dark sky site" also about the same size bit of land too (99acres vs 107acres) with similar quality skies but mine is 430m higher :D with better seeing :P...still pinching myself.

Mike

[Nikolas]

so much to look at when viewed on Astrobin, lovely work Michael

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Nik, lots of bubbles 🍾 :D

Mike