Small Magellanic Cloud
About this image
The Small Magellanic Cloud, often called the SMC, is one of our closest galactic neighbours. It sits around 200,000 light years away, which sounds impossibly distant, but in galactic terms it is actually quite close.
It is a small dwarf galaxy that orbits near the Milky Way, and from dark southern skies it can even be seen with the naked eye as a faint cloudy patch in the sky. But this is not a nebula or a star cloud within our own galaxy — it is another galaxy altogether, full of stars, dust, gas and regions where new stars are being born.
Unlike the grand spiral shape of the Milky Way, the Small Magellanic Cloud is more irregular and disturbed. This is likely because of the gravitational pull between itself, the Milky Way and the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud.
Sadly, this is not an object I can image from Portsmouth, as it sits far too low in the southern sky. It is very much a southern hemisphere object, best seen from places like Australia, South Africa or Chile. But it remains one of those wonderful deep-sky objects that reminds us just how vast the universe really is.
Image details
| Object type | galaxy |
|---|---|
| Catalogue | NGC 292, PGC 3085, NGC 292 – PGC 3085 – ESO 29-21 |
| Constellation | Tucana (Tuc) |
| Observed | 2026 Apr 14 – 22:54 UTC |
| Location | Sydney |
| Moon | Waning Crescent – 6% illuminated – age 27.3 days |
| WordPress categories | Not selected |
Equipment
| Telescope | Askar 180mm |
|---|---|
| Camera | ZWO ASI2600MC Pro |
| Mount | Juwei 17 |
| Filter | Not recorded |
| Focal length | Not recorded |
| F-ratio | Not recorded |
| Pixel scale | Not recorded |
Acquisition
| Exposure | Not recorded |
|---|---|
| Gain | Not recorded |
| Guiding RMS | Not recorded |
Posted from CityAstroLog.