I would like to introduce my Large Magellanic Cloud website!
Like most southies, over the years I had visited and revisited, all the Cloud’s NGC objects, as well as rambling around the congestion, tracking down Henize nebulae, Shapley-Lindsey clusters, and a multitude of other objects. But I long wanted to sort out for myself the supergiant shells, the superbubbles, the large complexes, the LH OB Associations, the SNRs, the bubbles and blobs in a way that would help me verify and contextualize what I was seeing… but it was always a project for next summer…
It wasn’t until I was here – in the Kalahari with my 16″ Dobsonian, and the extraordinary privilege of pristine skies and what seems like endless time – that I was able to do just that. It started out as that long-awaited next-summer’s project, but it quickly grew into a passion that stretched across a number of summers, and then eventually into a website that could be shared with anyone else wanting to explore this most magnificent galaxy!
Steve Gottlieb has very generously offered to share his LMC observations… we’re adding them page by page (it’s not a little task!) He also offered to keep up with all the latest research – providing all the relevant links and more importantly, writing a summary for each paper – great reads and a great addition.
Fantastic work and resource Susan.
I too am a LMC devotee, it's an amazing area to image - consistently surprising in the beauty of those knots and bubbles of nebulosity throughout the region.
I've just completed a 16 panel SHO/HOO mosaic which I was going to use as a map to identify regions that I may return to with longer focal lengths in the future, but your site will help enormously in planning too - kudos.
Thank you for sharing information about your wonderful website! What a fantastic resource for studying the LMC, the most incredible galaxy in the night sky.
I can see myself spending countless hours on your website gleaning all the precious information contained there. LMC is an observers paradise, thank you greatly for making this available and enjoy the stunning views out there in the Kalahari
Thank you for the great compliment, and you put it perfectly, for visual observer and astrophotographer alike, when you wrote that it is consistently surprising in the beauty of those knots and bubbles of nebulosity throughout the region. No matter how often I looked at an object, the next time I observed it, its beauty would surprise me once again. I can’t see ever tiring of observing this most magnificent of galaxies. Your image is fabulous… I spent the most wonderful time with it revisiting all my favourite LMC haunts on this rainy afternoon. I hope you keep in touch, I would love to see all your LMC images!
Hi Joe,
Thank you for the welcome and the lovely comments! I agree, the LMC is an observers’ paradise… from naked eye on up. Just as an interesting naked eye aside, I have met a number of old Kalahari farmers who still refer to it and the SMC as the Cape Clouds, and one great old chap gave me the best side-eyed glance when I “mistakenly” referred to it as the Large Magellanic Cloud! Am looking forward to some observing reports!
Thank you so much for the great compliments. I really appreciate your feedback - it is just wonderful to know that fellow amateur astronomers are going to enjoy using the info when out exploring or photographing this most glorious of galaxies!
This, Susan,is GOLD. The envy of Northerners , the LMC is to me a light I can't help flying towards with "Zamar" .You are right in saying " I cannot imagine the thrill of seeing it! (And how astronomically incredible is it for people to have seen the supernova and its remnant?) . I was blessed to do so at the one and only ( to date ) SDM Star Party held April 2019 within sight of Coonabarabran Observatory hosted by Alan Wade.Alan took up my challenge and using his 32" SDM Black Widow Dob and maps I had sourced from Astroron we visually confirmed SN 1987A remnant ! Oh what a feeling !! The greater thrill for me, armed with positional memory and 400X mag was to grab this tiny "star" using averted vision. How something so small and dim can generate such emotion still befuddles me. Bucket list ...Tick.. Wish I cols say i had done so again but unfortunately Sn1987A remnant has resisted another viewing despite repeated attempts.
Hello Wes,
What a privilege to have seen the SN 1987A remnant in 2019! I can’t imagine the emotion you experienced seeing the remains of a star that blew itself up a mere 34 years ago. In another galaxy. I know that one fine night I will nudge the telescope over for my regular scouring of that tiny patch of LMC real estate and… there it will be!! No matter how small or how faint, I suspect the sight of it will relegate N49 to second place in my “most beautiful SNRs to observe” line up; its beauty lying in what it is I am seeing (and I am sure you will agree N49 is a superb little beauty!)
Thanks Susan for your amazing website.
James Dunlop was the first to catalogue the LMC and SMC in 1826.
John Herschel added to Dunlop's work between 1834 and 1838.
Great site !
I (from EU, currently in Australia) have visited South Africa several times, the last time last year in Western Cape. There are also location with nice skies, but some 'Boers' are installing bright security lighting shining upward wasting the sky. They have never heard about a motion detector.
Thanks for such a great compliment and a special thanks for the Dunlop and Herschel comments. It led to a website edit - in the section “The LMC in the words of its greatest observers”, and in the very short little intro of Dunlop, I made brief mention in the last sentence about his catalogue being the first to catalogue both Clouds… a very significant fact to have been casually tossed in at the end, almost as an oh-by-the-way!
But an easy fix – as it should, the short entry begins: "Scottish astronomer James Dunlop was the first to catalogue the Large Magellanic Cloud."
Such a remarkable astronomer. Such a significant catalogue. And such a travesty that he and his catalogue were so horribly criticised and condemned, thus consigning him and his incredible catalogue to an absolutely unwarranted obscurity.
Thanks for your great compliment – and yes, sadly light pollution in South Africa is a rapidly growing problem. And you’re so right, in areas that one fully expects to have beautifully dark skies, way too many places are lit up with excessive and brilliant white lights that send light up, down, and all around to every horizon, from dusk until dawn. Motion detectors, shielded fixtures, warm-toned lights, timers, dimmers, restraint, consideration for the birds and bats and insects, and appreciation of a star-filled sky are a hard sell. Alas.
