SMALL MAGELLANIC CLOUD - SOUTHERN/WEST SIDE

 ACTIVE STAR FORMING REGION IN OUR NEIGHBOUR GALAXY

TUCANA (THE TOUCAN)

(Image centered at: ra 00h:47 m / dec - 72º 58')

ANNOTATED IMAGE

October 2024, Observatorio Cielos Albertnos, Buenos Aires, Argentina

DATA

TYPE: Active star forming region in the Small Magellanic Cloud

APPARENT DIAMETER: FOV 1 degree x 44 arc minutes

APPARENT MAGNITUDE (V): SMC 2,7 visual

DISTANCE: 203.700 light years

IMAGE INFORMATION

INSTRUMENT: 6" ORION OPTICS UK (Ultra Grade Optics) w/Sky Watcher Coma Corrector at f4.5

CAMERA: QHY 183 M

MOUNT: VIXEN GPDX, OAG with QHY 5II

FILTERS: Baader LRGB Set Antiia Ha & OIII

SKY CONDITIONS: Bortle 2 skies

OBJECT DESCRIPTION AND IMAGE SESSION

The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) represent along with the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) a spectacular binary system of dwarf irregular galaxies that orbit our Milky Way. Similar to other dwarf irregular galaxies, this two neighbors are rich in gas and dust and exhibit higher than normal levels of active star formation. The Magellanic Clouds and the Milky Way have a long history of mutual interaction which have profoundly affected the structure and star forming history of all three galaxies. The SMC contains some 30 billion stars and spans over 10,000 light years.

We aimed to NGC 261 which is in the center of the image. NGC 261 is a nebula fueled by numerous stars full enough to irradiate surrounding hydrogen gas, causing the clouds the emission red and bluish glow in the RGB light frequency. As per the processing the Ha and OIII 3 nm filters were used to enhance the RGB channels, carefully merged respecting the 500 nanometers area where the OIII brings structure and color.

Since the area presents a many interesting objects, below an annotated image with classics NGC, Henize Nebula labeled as N (catalogue Publish by Karl Henize in 1956); Kron star clusters objects (catalogue published in 1956 by Gerald Kron); a Lindsay and DEM (Davies, K.H. Elliot and J. Meaburn) object.

ANNOTATED IMAGE

SMALL MAGELLANIC CLOUD - SOUTHERN/WEST SIDE

 NGC; HENIZE (N); KRON DEM OBJECTS