The
Small Magellanic Cloud (in short SMC) is the second largest galaxy in
the sky,
excluding our Milky Way and the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). The field
of this image is 8x5°. Even if smaller that the LMC, it is
by way larger than the Andromeda Galaxy, M31, the largest one in the
Northern Hemisphere.
The field is filled with great objects, and maybe a full night is needed with a large dobson to carefully examine all of them. I've tried to find the most bright ones and they are indicated in the image above (mouse over).
The two nearby large globular clusters belongs to our galaxy; they are NGC 104, at right, and NGC 362, in the upper part.
Even if the field of the Pentax 75
scope and full frame camera is large, a 4 panes mosaic was needed to
gather the full extent. The images were collected
in consecutive nights during our Namibian stay at Tivoli. The total
exposure is more than 8 hours.
