View from LMC

[Trido]

This is a question that has intrigued me for a while.

Now for a little bit of story. In the distant future when Humans have discovered some uber device to make them go fast enough to travel between worlds, someone intrepid enough has decided to travel to the LMC. When he gets there, he finds a nice quiet M class planet with nice sandy beaches which for most of the year faces the Milky Way.

At night, what does he see? How visible would the Milky Way be from the LMC?

[pgc hunter]

Apparently we'd get an oblique view of the Milky way spanning about 36º of the sky. Although for an observer on a planet in the LMC, the milky way would be a northern hemisphere object.

from wikipedia:
"From a viewpoint in the LMC, the Milky Way would be a spectacular sight. The galaxy's total apparent magnitude (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apparent_magnitude) would be -2.0—over 14 times brighter than the LMC appears to us on Earth—and it would span about 36° (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degree_%28angle%29) across the sky, which is the width of over 70 full moons (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_moon). Furthermore, because of the LMC's high galactic latitude (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galactic_coordinate_system), an observer there would get an oblique view of the entire galaxy, free from the interference of interstellar dust (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstellar_dust) which makes studying in the Milky Way's plane difficult from Earth.[18] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Magellanic_Cloud#cite_note-17) The Small Magellanic Cloud (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Magellanic_Cloud) would be about magnitude 0.6, substantially brighter than the LMC appears to us."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Magellanic_Cloud

[Trido]

Thanks. Just imagine what that view would be like. :)

[saberscorpx]

Here's our galaxy from the LMC suburbs at 157kly.
We're looking 'up' at the Milky Way's belly. The Solar system
is located a couple knots right of the photo's center.

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q152/Sabertime/misc/sollmc.jpg


Saber Does The Stars at
http://www.astronomyblogs.com/member/saberscorpx

[AlexN]

That would be utterly amazing... Just imagine how fantastic NGC2070 would be! :) I read somewhere that if 2070 was as close to us as M42 is, it too would span something like 30x the width of the moon in the night sky... That would be INSANE!

[Enchilada]

Probably, a more esoteric question;

I wonder. Also, what would the SMC look like for the LMC (and vice-versa)?

* I sincerely congratulate Trido here for his question, as for all my experience I never considered this idea (perspective) at all!. A truly southern observer perspective that most northerners would reject as trivial nor intuitive! :hi:

[pgc hunter]

Yeah that's true, if it replaced M42 it would cover the constellation Orion and cast shadows! Good thing it's not that close, otherwise my galaxy hunting days would be over!!!