A combination of traveler and home this image turned to be be a surprising amount of work plagued by cloudy summer skies.
Floating down from the meridian at Sun set the SMC hovers naked eye in our darker skies here in SE Queensland Australia. A marvelous binocular target whilst laying on the outdoor lounge!
Referring to the largest and brightest nebulous region upper left of frame, discovered by James Dunlop on the night of the 1st August 1826 from the Parramatta Observatory , he described it as "bright, large, very irregular figure, much brighter middle similar to double star, mottled but not resolved".
210000 ly distant it has a diameter of 150ly and a mass of 50000 solar masses!
This cluster is located near the center of the brightest
H II region in the SMC, designated N66.=reference
[7] This is positioned in the northeast section of the
galactic bar.=reference
[8] Stellar surveys have identified 230 massive
OB stars in the direction of this cluster.=reference
[4] 33 of the cluster members are
O-type stars, with 11 of type O6.5 or [url=mw-redirect=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early-type_star]earlier[/url].=reference
[8] The inner =nowrap15 pc radius of the cluster appears centrally condensed, while the area outside that volume is more dispersed.=reference
[9] The youngest cluster members near the center have ages of less than two million years,=reference
[7] and observations suggests the cluster is still engaged in high mass
star formation.=reference
[7] The cluster star formation rate is estimated at (4±1)×10−3
M☉ yr–1.=reference
[9] Wiki.
=expandableItem3 min exposures unfortunately have blown the sore of this stella factory out .( A lesson for next time to try a HDR technique)
Awe and Wonder Folks
and Merry CHRISTmas
Comments