Small Magellanic Cloud Tidal Tail (with added dust)

[Atmos (Colin)]

After Rho Oph started getting a bit low over night I figured I may as well image something until astronomical twilight (was still 4:15 am) so I pointed it at the SMC, refocused and went back to sleep.

Although my HEQ5 didn't track this very well, probably needed to change the balance as I think I had it east heavy instead of west. Didn't consider it at the time, not until about 15 minutes ago anyway.

So, no calibration frames yet but this is showing up something I didn't know existed. I've cropped the frame just to show SMC, 47 Tuc and the tidal tail.

28x120s @ F/2.8, has taken a need of 25% of resolution just to get something remotely round stellar wise Might have another crack at this tonight, hopefully properly balanced.

[url="http://www.astrobin.com/full/301645/0/?nc=user"]High Res Link[url]

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Getting that extension/tidal tail is indeed very cool Col

Mike

[Atmos (Colin)]

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Getting that extension/tidal tail is indeed very cool Col

Mike

I didn't even know it existed, there is an APOD from 2010 that shows it beautifully.

[atalas]

Very Cool Colin

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by Atmos

I didn't even know it existed, there is an APOD from 2010 that shows it beautifully.

Oh yeah there is heaps around there for the faint hearted

[Andy01 (Andy)]

That's a pretty cool image Colin - and these wide field images will only get better as you do more with the new toy

[graham.hobart (Graham stevens)]

Very cool Col!

[Atmos (Colin)]

Originally Posted by atalas

Very Cool Colin

Thanks Louie

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Oh yeah there is heaps around there for the faint hearted

Going to aim a bit lower and see how far down that tidal tail goes

Originally Posted by Andy01

That's a pretty cool image Colin - and these wide field images will only get better as you do more with the new toy

Going to hit it again at maybe 4am again. Going to mount it on the EQ6 tonight so hopefully it'll do a bit better than the HEQ5.

Originally Posted by graham.hobart

Very cool Col!

Thanks Graham

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

That's amazing. I had no idea that the Magellanic Bridge was open to inspection by mortals.

The tail in your image seems to match up with that in the APOD.

Well done.
Mike

[SimmoW (SIMON)]

Thats Kewl Colin, like an umbilical cord...

[Stevec35 (Steve)]

That's very nice Colin. I can't recall noticing the tail before.

Cheers

Steve

[topheart]

Very interesting Colin!
Well done!
Cheers,
Tim

[Nocturn (Phill)]

good one colin, so clear

[Atmos (Colin)]

Well, took almost as long to calibrate, debayer, register and stack as it did to captured the subs. Sitting here registering Rho Oph and it's taking hours!

Anyway, this is the SMC, 47 Tuc with tidal tail and surrounding dust.

High Res Link

[Andy01 (Andy)]

ooooooh, that's cool

[gregbradley]

Nice work Collin. We take these common objects for granted and then someone posts something like this and it makes me realise there's more to see and know about these objects than is commonly regarded.

Greg.

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

Wow! Uncalibrated the tidal tail looked plausible, probable, but now it looks absolutely professional. Top class.

[Atmos (Colin)]

Originally Posted by Andy01

ooooooh, that's cool

Some interesting things to do with smaller telescopes

Originally Posted by gregbradley

Nice work Collin. We take these common objects for granted and then someone posts something like this and it makes me realise there's more to see and know about these objects than is commonly regarded.

Greg.

I didn't even know the tidal tail existed until Friday morning after I'd finished my uncalibrated stack and went "Hmmm, looks like a tidal tail, maybe I should Google that." I knew there was a lot of dust in the area. Might need to borrow a Zeiss Otis 55mm and a Nikon D810 in a couple of months for a deep stack of both the LMC and SMC (pretty sure they'll fit in that FOV).

Originally Posted by Placidus

Wow! Uncalibrated the tidal tail looked plausible, probable, but now it looks absolutely professional. Top class.

This morning I discovered that the filter UV/IR filter I'd been using the second night caused all kinds of problems so I'll have to go and reshoot this next new moon I think. Thinking I need a lot more exposure time, also want to see how the lens performs down as fast as F/2. Bit of testing to do before next new moon

[gregbradley]

Yeah I would take off any filters you would normally have on your camera lenses for astro work.

Otus 55 and D810 - sounds very high end. That could be very good.

Greg.

[Stefan Buda]

Good work Colin.

Perhaps you can use my image from last year as a reference for framing.
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...d.php?t=146721

I've been waiting for someone to have a go at this area.