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The Large Magellanic Cloud in SHO, Brian Boyle
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The Large Magellanic Cloud in SHO

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The Large Magellanic Cloud in SHO, Brian Boyle
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The Large Magellanic Cloud in SHO

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Description

One of the advantages of living at 45 South, is extended access to the Magellanic Clouds. So rather late in the season, I embarked on a 3-night odyssey to image the LMC in SHO starting at 2-3hours past the meridian and following it until it was 8hours west of the meridian.  The SII and the Ha bands were taken from Speargrass Flat, but the OIII-band was taken from a place north of Glenorchy, where I had travelled to discuss as astro-tourism venture with the locals, as part of their ambitions to achieve dark sky park designation for Glenorchy and the associated areas of the Rees, Dart valleys, Routeburn track and Mt Aspiring NP.  For those that don't know the area, check out the last Mission Impossible film as climatic helicopter sequence was filmed there (NZ doubling as Kashmir).

Glenorchy is a fabulously dark site and the sight of the heavens against the inky blackness of the 2000m+ mountains that ring the township is awe-inspiring.  

This also gave me a chance to test out how straightforward it was to travel with my portable rig.  Set-up for was easy, and I was going within 10min.  However, one caveat.  I still haven't managed to get the EQM35 Pro mount to track in dec under guiding.  I am deeply unimpressed by the design and despite 3months of fiddling with backlash, overtightened bolts, I still have to run with RA only guided and limited to 180 sec exposures.  

Nevertheless, I was happy with the final result, even even I had to weed through, and throw out more subs (25% lost) than I would have liked.  

To celebrate the Glenorchy folks hospitality, I have dialled up the blue channel a little.  It may be a little too psychedelic for some tastes, but I do like how the barred spiral structure shows quite clearly in the NB, along with the amazing star formation activity.

90 x 180sec in each of Ha, [SII] and [OIII]

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The Large Magellanic Cloud in SHO, Brian Boyle