Small Magellanic Cloud

[glenc]

The Small Magellanic Cloud transits at about midnight (DST) this month and 10pm in November. There are 39 NGC objects in the SMC. How many can you see?
The attached file lists them and gives a crude map. It also includes 332 NGC objects in the LMC.
The data is from Dr. Wolfgang Steinicke at:http://www.klima-luft.de/steinicke/ngcic/Expl_Hist_NGC.htm
Here is an image of the SMC: http://dudeman.net/spacedog/gn/smc2.jpg
Bert has an image at: http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=64156&d=1253324888
also at: http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=50390&highlight=SMC
Jase has an image at: http://cosmicphotos.com/gallery/image.php?fld_image_id=126&fld_album_id=12
also at: http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=32672&highlight=Small+Magellanic+Cloud&page=2

[Lismore Bloke]

Thanks Glen. I bet I don't see as many on the list as you ... can only try. Cheers, Paul.

[avandonk]

Here is a map made with Star Atlas Pro with an image of the SMC superimposed with Registar. 2.4MB

http://d1355990.i49.quadrahosting.com.au/2009_10/smcmap.jpg


You should be able to plot the objects from Glen's list.

Bert

[glenc]

Thanks Bert, that will be handy. Paul you should be able to see most of them.

[Blackant]

Hi Glen,
Great list and map, thanks for that. Would I have much chance of seeing many of them with an 8" Dob? I have pretty dark skies and both the LMC and SMC are easy for me to pick up with my naked eye. Even before I got my scope I used to spend a bit of time looking at the structure of them with my 15X70 bino's. All I could identify conclusively though was the tarantula nebula.

Kind regards

Ant

[Lismore Bloke]

I will certainly be using that image, and also this one:

http://www.hawastsoc.org/deepsky/maps/tuc/smc.gif

Especially when you blow it up and print off. Cheers, Paul.

[glenc]

Ant, I think an 8" would show at least half the NGC objects in the SMC.
The attached maps are from Guide 8.0.

[mithrandir]

CNebulaX has been getting some discussion in another thread. Here's a sample SMC map it can generate.

[Lismore Bloke]

Thanks Andrew,

How did you convince your copy of CNebulaX to produce a map of such high quality. The ones I tried were rather low resolution. Cheers, Paul.

[mithrandir]

It put up a fight, but eventually succumbed.

Choose your target.

Right click on one of the FOV tabs and change the angle to suit your the target. At the moment mine are set at 90, 45, 15, 5 and 2 degrees.

Click the "Edit" tab, and choose a resolution. You can fiddle with the "Mag" and "Star Size" sliders if you like. That image is 2048x1448 with mag 12.6 and size 2.5.

Click the "Mono" or "Color"(sic) icon. I found I had to click it a few times, but this is on my creaky old T40 with only 512MB. When the disk activity light stayed on for a while it had worked. I suspect if the image gets too big either the app or XP can't cope. I haven't got 2560x1810 to work - Gimp says there is no image in the clipboard.

Paste the clipboard into your editor of choice - Gimp, Photoshop, whatever.

Saved as PNG. JPEG isn't a very good choice for monochrome images.

[Lismore Bloke]

Thanks for that info. Andrew, you were spot on.:thumbsup:
I was surprised at the large scale of the map and the high quality. Much appreciated. Paul.

[glenc]

This list gives the diameter in arcmin and class for the NGC objects in the SMC
Reference Bica http://vizier.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/VizieR?-source=J/ApJS/101/41
Class: C: star cluster, A: association, N: emission nebula
Images are here: http://www.ngcicproject.org/dss/dss_ngc.asp
I have arranged them into a viewing order. (see post #7)
The N: emission nebula show up well with a UHC filter.

Name Diam Class
NGC121 3.8 C, [NGC104 or 47 Tuc]
NGC152 3.0 C, NGC176 1.2 C
NGC220 1.2 C, NGC222 1.2 C, NGC231 1.8 C
NGC241 1.0 C, NGC242 0.8 C, NGC248n 0.7 NA, NGC248s 0.7 NC
NGC249 1.1 NA, NGC261 1.3 NA, NGC267 2.0 NA, NGC290 1.1 C, NGC294 1.7 C
NGC256 0.9 C, NGC265 1.2 C, NGC269 1.2 C
NGC299 0.9 C, NGC306 1.1 C
NGC330 2.8 C, NGC346 8.5 NA, NGC371 4.2 NA, NGC395 1.5 NA
[NGC 362], NGC361 2.6 C, NGC411 2.1 C, NGC422 1.0 C, NGC458 2.6 C
NGC376 1.8 C, NGC416 1.7 C, NGC419 2.8 C
NGC456 3.8 NA, NGC460nw 1.9 NA, NGC460se 2.6 NA, NGC465 5.0 A, NGC602 3.2 NA
NGC339 2.9 C, NGC643 2.2 C, NGC796 1.2 C
(http://www.ngcicproject.org/dss/dss_ngc.asp)

[Blackant]

Thanks Glen, I'm looking forward to giving it a go on the weekend. That's if it stops raining and snowing by then, LOL

[glenc]

I have seen all of the SMC NGC objects with a 12" Dob except NGC 643. The clouds beat me last night.

[glenc]

Attached is a map of the SMC in a Word doc from JR's C atlas page 561.
http://www.uv.es/jrtorres/index.html

[mac]

I got pretty close to having a look at the SMC last night (I had a good view of 47 Tuc), but the cloud set in suddenly.

[glenc]

I have seen all of the NGC objects in the SMC with a 12" Dob.
These are the faintest ones. (I think N643 is the faintest)

Name Diam Class
NGC152 3.0 C
NGC248n 0.7 NA, NGC248s 0.7 NC
NGC422 1.0 C
NGC339 2.9 C, NGC643 2.2 C
(http://www.ngcicproject.org/dss/dss_ngc.asp)

[Lismore Bloke]

Well done Glen! You are much better placed to see the fainter ones than me. The SMC here is a only a faint patch. I was going to have a look Friday night but there was total cloud. I thought, will check later, then fell asleep and awoke with the rising moon looking at me. Hopefully the current cloud will buzz off and give me a chance to see some of them.

[glenc]

It was very clear last night so I looked at all the SMC NGC objects again.
I think NGCs 152, 422 and 643 are the faintest.