NGC 1965 in the Large Magellanic Cloud
- Details
The Large Magellanic Cloud contains a lot of open clusters and nebulosity. The LMC is a close-by galaxy, often considered a satellite galaxy of our own galaxy, but recent studies show that it is just a passer-by. In the future it will leave our surroundings together with the Small Magellanic Cloud. But in the meantime there is more than enough time to image the objects in the LMC.
NGC 1965 is an open cluster embedded in nebulosity. It is not alone in this picture. In the same nebulosity several other open clusters can be seen, NGC 1962, 1966 and NGC 1970. To the right of the nebulosity another compact open cluster NGC 1953 can be seen; to the left of the nebulosity a large open cluster is visible, NGC 2001. See for the exact locations the annotated image in the first comment.
I scheduled 20 missions through the Chile Two telescope with a total exposure time of 37 minutes.
The resulting images are combined and processed in PixInsight.
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NGC 2020 and surrounding objects in the LMC
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To the right of the middle of this picture the red nebula NGC 2014 and its blue neighbor NGC 2020 can be seen. Some of the stars in NGC 2014 are huge. The nebula's sparkling centerpiece is a grouping of bright stars, each 10 to 20 times more massive than our Sun. The seemingly isolated blue nebula, NGC 2020, has been created by a solitary mammoth Wolf-Raye star 200,000 times brighter than our Sun. The blue gas was ejected by the star through a series of eruptive events during which it lost part of its outer envelope of material.NGC 2021 is a rather small open star cluster on top of both nebulae.On the left you can see the Seagull nebula NGC 2032 and its neighbor emission nebulae NGC 2029, NGC 2035 & NGC 2040.
This picture is the result of 25 missions through the Slooh Chili two telescope with a total exposure time of 46 minutes. Processing was done in PixInsight.
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NGC 2048 - another part of the Large Magellanic Cloud
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This picture shows the Open Star Cluster NGC 2048 embedded in an emission nebula. Also this cluster with nebulosity is part of the Large Magellanic Cloud. In the annotated picture in the first comment other neighboring objects are identified. This area of the LMC is just to the south of the Tarantula nebula.
The open cluster in the center of the image is NGC 2033; NGC 2048 is to the left and to the right of this open cluster.
For this picture I scheduled 25 missions through the Slooh Chili Two telescope. The resulting FITS files were combined and processed in PixInsight
Click on the picture for a larger version
NGC 2080 and surrounding objects in the LMC
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Lying between the Tarantula Nebula (NGC 2070) and the main galactic bar of the LMC, this region contains a good number of highly active emission nebulae. The “Ghost Head Nebula” is centred around the open star cluster, NGC 2080, which comprises a number of quite young, very hot stars.
The “ghost head” is the nebula just left of centre in this image. The resolution of this image is too low to recognize the two 'eyes' of the ghost nebula.
There are numerous other clusters and filaments of nebulosity in this part of the LMC.
Just to the right is the open cluster NGC 2077; to the left and a bit below NGC 2080 are NGC 2085 and NGC 2086 located. Further below center there is a group of clusters embedded in nebulosity, 2083, 2084, 2078 and 2079. Above the center two open clusters and nebulosity can be found NGC 2074 and NGC 2081. These are just a few of the objects that can be found in this picture.
I scheduled 35 missions through the Slooh Chili two telescope with a total exposure time of a bit more than one hour. The resulting FITS-files were combined and further processed in PixInsight.
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NGC 2467 - Skull and Crossbones nebula
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Area surrounding the stellar cluster NGC 2467, located in the southern constellation of Puppis ("The Stern"). With an age of a few million years at most, it is a very active stellar nursery, where new stars are born continuously from large clouds of dust and gas.
Why it is called the Skull and Crossbones nebula is not clear to me. With some fantasy I can see a skull (right part of the nebula) but certainly no crossbones.
The image contains the open clusters Haffner 18 (centre) and Haffner 19 (above Haffner 18 in a circular nebulosity), as well as vast areas of ionised gas.
I scheduled 30 missions through the Slooh Chili two telescope with a total exposure time of 55 minutes. Combination of the resulting FITS-images and further processing is done in PixInsight.
Click on the image to get a larger version