* Image acquisition (RGB) by:
Christian Gow.
* Image acquisition (Ha): Wei Zhang.
* Image processing: Ruben Barbosa.
* Setup: Pentax FA*85mm, ZWO ASI294MC Pro · ZWO ASI183MM PRO, Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro
The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. At a distance of around 160,000 light-years, the LMC is the second or third closest galaxy to the Milky Way, after the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal and the possible dwarf irregular galaxy known as the Canis Major Overdensity. Based on readily visible stars and a mass of approximately 10 billion solar masses, the diameter of the LMC is about 14,000 light-years. It is roughly a hundredth as massive as the Milky Way and is the fourth largest galaxy in the Local Group, after the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), the Milky Way, and the Triangulum Galaxy (M33).
With a declination of about −70°, the LMC is visible as a faint "cloud" from the southern hemisphere of the Earth and from as far north as 20° N. It straddles the constellations Dorado and Mensa and has an apparent length of about 10° to the naked eye, 20 times the Moon's diameter, from dark sites away from light pollution.
The Milky Way and the LMC are predicted to collide in approximately 2.4 billion years.
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