Large and Small Magellanic Clouds

These are 2 irregular dwarf galaxies that are members of the local group and are currently companions to our Milky Way galaxy. Both are fractions of the size of the Milky Way, are rich in Hydrogen and Helium gas and are undergoing star formation activity. The Large Magellanic Cloud is 160,000 light years away and The Small Magellanic Cloud (in the constellation Tucana) is 200,000 light years away. They are 75,000 light-years apart from each other. Recent studies by the Harvard Center for Astrophysics has found that the Magellanic Clouds are not gravitationally bound to our Milky Way galaxy. They are easily visible to the naked eye and generally can only be seen in the Southern Hemisphere.

31 images x 60-second subframes, Total= 31 minutes. Canon EF 16-35mm, f/2.8L lens using FL= 35mm, f/2.8, Unmodified Canon T1i DSLR, ISO 800. Processing by Images Plus 3.82B, Additional processing using PixInsight LT and Photoshop. Bustard Downs, Maryfarms, Far North Queensland, Australia, S 16-degrees 34.116-minutes,  E 145-degrees 11.336-minutes, 15 November 2012.