The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (Michael Watson)

The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds

Link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/97587627@N06/15976093912/in/set-72157647335374894/

These two objects are irregular dwarf galaxies that orbit our own Milky Way galaxy, and can be seen only from the southern hemisphere (or from south of 20 degrees north latitude). They are located some 163,000 and 200,000 light years from us, and are both easily visible to the unaided eye, appearing as detached pieces of the Milky Way.

The bright star at the upper left of the frame is -0.6 magnitude Canopus, the brightest star in the constellation Carina (Latin for the keel of a ship) and the second brightest star in the sky (after Sirius).

At upper right is Achernar, in the constellation Eridanus (the Greek name for the river Po), the tenth brightest star in the sky.

The bright starlike object to the right of the SMC (at the lower right of the frame) is the bright globular star cluster 47 Tucanae.

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Nikkor 24-70 mm lens on Nikon D810 camera body, mounted on Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer tracking mount.

40 mm focal length; ISO 2000; five stacked 90-second exposures at f/4.5

Stacked in Registar; processed in Photoshop CS6

Please note: The following tables are updated every 24 hours.

Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Basic failed
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	487243
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

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