The Magellanic Clouds over La Silla

The Milky Way, our home galaxy is not alone in the Local Group of galaxies in the Universe, there are several smaller or larger satellite galaxies orbiting around it. Two of these are visible to the unaided eye, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (the LMC and the SMC). These are both irregular galaxies, both only visible from the Southern hemisphere.

First, here is a wide angle view of the sky towards the southern celestial pole. (Canon EOS 7D + Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM lens @ 15mm, f/3.5, ISO1600, 69s.)

20140504_MagellanicClouds-1

Then from a few hours later, here is another shot showing the Magellanic Clouds next to the dome of the ESO 3.6 metre Telescope. The strong green and orange glow above the horizon is airglow. (FUJIFILM X100S, 23 mm, f/2, ISO 3200, 15s.)

20140504_MagellanicClouds-2

The following two shots are both made from 10 individual images by calculating their average to achieve a better signal-to-noise ratio (a.k.a. to have nicer images with low noise). Each individual frame was taken with a Canon EOS 7D + Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM lens, f/2, ISO1600, 20s.

20140505_MagellanicClouds-1

20140505_MagellanicClouds-2

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.