Our neighbouring galaxies

[bloodhound31]

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.

[FlashDrive (Poppy)]

Great shots Barry .... !!
Awesome sky shot in the 3rd pic .. just amazing what can be seen at a dark site ..... I am envious ...don't get that where I am.

Flash

[multiweb (Marc)]

Very cool. The MCs are good value at that FL. Love the tripod shot. Awesome skies. You're up in the mountains?

[gregbradley]

Some more beaut photos. Terrifc Baz. Very enjoyable.

Greg.

[bloodhound31]

Originally Posted by multiweb

Very cool. The MCs are good value at that FL. Love the tripod shot. Awesome skies. You're up in the mountains?

Cheers fellas! Yes Marc, my favourite place to be!

Baz.

[astroron (Ron)]

Great shots Baz,
I am deffineitly going to come down there and go on a camp with you some time
Cheers

[bloodhound31]

Originally Posted by astroron

Great shots Baz,
I am deffineitly going to come down there and go on a camp with you some time
Cheers

Mate, you know your company would be most welcome!

Baz.

[midnight (Darrin)]

Very nice Baz.

Presentation is good too. I like the widefield with the pine trees hinting of a cold night under the stars.

Darrin...

[bloodhound31]

Originally Posted by midnight

Very nice Baz.

Presentation is good too. I like the widefield with the pine trees hinting of a cold night under the stars.

Darrin...

LOL! THanks Darrin...nothing to do with the big black kangaroo rug wrapped around me...what gave it away?

Baz.

[iceman (Mike)]

Love the last one, nice work!

[bloodhound31]

Hey thanks Mike! Standing up all night is normal, but trying to remain perfectly still for 30 seconds is a challenge!

The last photo is a bit grainy as I took it with my old 400D, which just seems rough compared to the 5DMKII when I stretch a long exposure like this one. That's OK though, I knew that when I took it and the photo was more for the story than the image quality.

Baz.

[Ross G]

Great widefield photos Barry.

Love the terrestrial shot.


Thanks.

Ross.