bloodhound31
30-08-2011, 09:21 PM
The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is a nearby irregular galaxy, and is a satellite of the Milky Way. At a distance of slightly less than 50 kiloparsecs (≈160,000 light-years), the LMC is the third closest galaxy to the Milky Way. It has a mass equivalent to approximately 10 billion times the mass of our Sun (1010 solar masses), making it roughly 1/100 as massive as the Milky Way, and a diameter of about 14,000 light-years.
The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is a dwarf galaxy with a diameter of about 7,000 light-years and contains several hundred million stars. It has a total mass of approximately 7 billion times the mass of our Sun.
At a distance of about 200,000 light-years, it is one of the Milky Way's nearest neighbors. It is also one of the most distant objects that can be seen with the naked eye.
Each image is a stack of around 8 subframes of five minutes each. Taken with a 5DMK II and 70-200 f/4L at 70mm. Star tracking was done with the camera mounted to my EQ6 pro telescope mount. (http://www.asignobservatory.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=43)
The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is a dwarf galaxy with a diameter of about 7,000 light-years and contains several hundred million stars. It has a total mass of approximately 7 billion times the mass of our Sun.
At a distance of about 200,000 light-years, it is one of the Milky Way's nearest neighbors. It is also one of the most distant objects that can be seen with the naked eye.
Each image is a stack of around 8 subframes of five minutes each. Taken with a 5DMK II and 70-200 f/4L at 70mm. Star tracking was done with the camera mounted to my EQ6 pro telescope mount. (http://www.asignobservatory.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=43)