The Tarantula in the Large Cloud (Brian Diettrich)

Celestial hemisphere: Southern · Constellation: Dorado (Dor) · Contains: 30 Dor Cluster · NGC 1910 · NGC 1916 · NGC 1918 · NGC 1983 · NGC 1986 · NGC 2001 · NGC 2015 · NGC 2033 · NGC 2037 · NGC 2042 · NGC 2044 · NGC 2050 · NGC 2052 · NGC 2060 · NGC 2069 · NGC 2070 · NGC 2074 · NGC 2081 · NGC 2098 · NGC 2100 · Tarantula Nebula

The Tarantula in the Large Cloud, Brian Diettrich

Powered byPixInsight

The Tarantula in the Large Cloud

Powered byPixInsight

The Tarantula in the Large Cloud

On November nights in New Zealand, the Large Magellanic Cloud circles the south celestial pole high in the southern sky. Its brightest object, the Tarantula Nebula (30 Doradus), is visible with the eye as a fuzzy puff of light. A satellite galaxy, the LMC is the brightest galaxy in our skies, and on particularly dark nights it offers a rich view of many extra-galactic clusters and nebulae. The image shows the south-eastern LMC, focused around 30 Doradus but spotted with many open clusters, globular clusters, and nebulae all located within the LMC.

The wonderous Tarantula Nebula has invited many rich descriptions. Writing from 1874, John Herschel described it as “one of the most singular and extraordinary objects which the heavens present” (Kanipe 2023:330). Stephen James O’Meara referred to it as “one of the most profound sights of the night sky”, and noted that from its centre “sprawl several crablike arms and legs, all extending in seemingly animated ways” (2002:474). Hartung wrote of “extensive clouds of luminous bluish haze contrasted with dark areas, and concentrated around a central star-like object in a series of well-defined hoops” (1995:283). The brightest object in the LMC, the Tarantula is also the largest H II region in the entire Local Group. Formerly called the Loop Nebula, the name Tarantula comes from photographs in the mid-twentieth century (Kanipe 2023:334) that showed its internal 'legs' of gas and dust.

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
Artificial satellite

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 success
Started	...
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

AstroBin

AstroBin

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

The Tarantula in the Large Cloud

The Tarantula in the Large Cloud

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Sky plot

Histogram

		...
You have no new notifications.

AstroBin

AstroBin

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

The Tarantula in the Large Cloud

The Tarantula in the Large Cloud

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Sky plot

Histogram

Notifications

AstroBin is in READ ONLY mode

Sorry :-(

Sorry :-(

Sorry :-(

Are you really sure?

Warning!

Warning!

Are you sure?

Report abuse

Slideshow settings

IOTD/TP stats (last [x] days)

Distribution of astrophotographers

Distribution of subject types

Distribution of data sources

Sorry

Sorry

Share

Upload new revision

Upload uncompressed source (XISF/FITS/PSD/TIFF)

Delete image and all its revisions?

Delete original image?

Delete all other versions?

Delete all revisions?

IOTD/TP stats

The following people like this image

The following people bookmarked this image

Error

Flag malfunctioning thumbnails

Contains

Remove yourself as a collaborator

Plate-solving information