This image of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) has been captured with a monochrome full frame CMOS camera (ZWO ASI6200) and Canon EF200mm f2.8 lens. This combination gives a 10d x 7d field of view, ideal for capturing the LMC in a single field. The Canon lens has been stopped down to f5.6 to improve the off axis aberrations that can be apparent when running these lenses fully open. The continuum mapping technique was used to integrate the Ha signal into RGB master.
It became quite evident in post processing that there was a significant amount of signal surrounding the main body of the LMC so some research was required to identify whether this was due to Galactic Cirrus, a light gradient or a structure associated with the LMC. This research has shown that the image does in fact show extended spiral structures around the galaxy. These structures are also evident in a number of other wide field LMC images posted here on Astrobin.
My thanks to
@Mathew Ludgate for bringing to my attention the following paper:
LOW SURFACE BRIGHTNESS IMAGING OF THE MAGELLANIC SYSTEM: IMPRINTS OF TIDAL
INTERACTIONS BETWEEN THE CLOUDS IN THE STELLAR PERIPHERY, Besla et al. APJ 2016.In this paper, the authors have conducted deep optical imagery of the LMC and SMC using telephoto lens including the very lens that I have used for this project, the Canon EF200mm f2.8 prime telephoto lens. In doing so the authors state that they "
explore stellar substructure in the outskirts of the stellar disk of the LMC" and that they "
highlight the existence of stellar arcs and multiple spiral arms in the northern periphery ...."Image Revision C (mouse over) is a cropped and rotated version of Figure 1 in the above paper presented with a view to comparing the extended halo structure of the LMC captured by the authors of the Besla paper against the image presented in this post. This demonstrates that the additional signal surrounding the field here is in fact part of the LMC structure.
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