Tarantula Region

Located in the outskirts of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), the Tarantula Nebula is a massive object, visible in binoculars.

The LMC is a nearby small galaxy, 160,000 light years away and the Tarantula is an active starburst region of it.

Object Details:

NGC 2070, Caldwell 103, 30 Doradus.
Constellation: Dorado.
Visual magnitude: +5
Apparent diameter: 40 x 25.0 arc-min. (about 1.2 x 0.8 LD).
Actual diameter: 1833 light years.
Distance: 160,000 light years.

Also visible:

Included in this wide field image are around twenty other smaller objects which are listed in the NGC Catalogue, including: NGC 2042, NGC 2044, NGC 2050, NGC 2055, NGC 2060, NGC 2069, NGC 2074, NGC 2077, NGC 2078, NGC 2079, NGC 2080, NGC 2081, NGC 2083, NGC 2084, NGC 2085, NGC 2086, NGC 2091, NGC 2092, NGC 2093, NGC 2100, NGC 2102, NGC 2108.

Update from astrometry.net in my Flickr post:

Hello, this is the blind astrometry solver. Your results are:
(RA, Dec) center: (84.865347849, -69.3110703425) degrees
Orientation: 0.891343868786 deg E of N
Pixel scale: 2.67320007344 arcsec/pixel
Your field contains:
NGC 2028, NGC 2033, NGC 2037, NGC 2042, NGC 2044, NGC 2050, NGC 2055, NGC 2052,
NGC 2060, NGC 2069, NGC 2074, NGC 2078, NGC 2079, NGC 2080, NGC 2083, NGC 2084,
NGC 2081, NGC 2085, NGC 2086, NGC 2091, NGC 2092, NGC 2093, NGC 2094, NGC 2102,
NGC 2108, IC 2145, HD 39015, HD 269893, HD 38706, HD 269974, HD 269993, HD 269950,
HD 38329, HD 38437, HD 269942, HD 270045, HD 269911, HD 269955, HD 269905,
HD 269992, HD 269898, HD 270021, HD 269934, HD 269837, HD 269774, HD 269830,
HD 38215, HD 269809, HD 269757, HD 269786, HD 269816, HD 37680, HD 269770,
HD 269769, HD 269784, HD 270066, HD 269930, HD 270040, HD 38416, HD 269953
HD 270018, HD 269972, HD 269991, HD 38540, HD 269964, HD 270004, HD 38436,
HD 269978, HD 269937, HD 269936, HD 269952, HD 270056, HD 269956, HD 38448,
HD 38472, HD 38489, HD 270027, HD 270057, HD 270046, HD 270028, HD 270047,
HD 270041, HD 270019, HD 269998, HD 38762, HD 269997, HD 269979, HD 269975,
HD 269982, HD 270064, HD 270049, HD 270022, HD 38894, HD 270023, HD 38727,
HD 270052, HD 270007, HD 269981, HD 38617, HD 38654, HD 270005, HD 269959,
HD 269858, HD 269849, HD 269859, HD 269880, HD 269851, HD 269908, HD 269822,
HD 269820, HD 38030, HD 269923, HD 269924, HD 37974, HD 269927, HD 269915,
HD 269832, HD 269920, HD 269922, HD 269891, HD 269860, HD 269902, HD 38344,
HD 38282, HD 269928, HD 269946, HD 269926, HD 269888, HD 38268, HD 269919,
HD 38029, HD 269938, HD 269931, HD 269846, HD 269883, HD 269768, HD 37836,
HD 37722, HD 269764, HD 269815, HD 269828, HD 269826, HD 269818, HD 269840,
HD 269819, HD 269896, HD 269903, HD 269921, HD 269954, HD 269916, HD 269881,
HD 269866, HD 269857, HD 269869, HD 269867, HD 269814, HD 269795, HD 269788,
HD 269780, NGC 2048, NGC 2070, NGC 2077, NGC 2100.

(Is this a record?)

Image:

Exposure: 32 x 2 min, ISO 1600.
Date: 2017-11-08.
Location: Leumeah, NSW.
Sky: suberban sky, clear.
Moon: no.
Processing: Canon DPP > Deep Sky Stacker > GIMP.
Cropping: no.

Gear:
Imaging telescope: Skywatcher Esprit 120ED Super APO triplet refractor.
Focal length: 840 mm, focal ratio: f/7.
Imaging camera: Canon EOS 60D.
Guiding: off (due to RA corrections failing).
Telescope mount: SkyWatcher EQ6-R.
Polar aligning: QHYCCD PoleMaster.
Field flattener: yes; filter: no.
My gear.

 

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Image © R.Powell

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