Galaxies to the North and South
At this time of year it is always great fun to try to find
the Andromeda Galaxy the most distant object that can be seen with the eye
without any optical aid. The Andromeda galaxy is about 2.2 million light years
away. It is probably the most famous galaxy in the northern hemisphere.
However what observers in the northern hemisphere might be
excused for forgetting is that this is also a good time of the year in the
southern hemisphere to look at their most famous galaxies the Large and Small
Magellanic Clouds (LMC & SMC).
Compared to the Andromeda galaxy the LMC which
is in the constellation of Dorado & SMC in the constellation of Tucana are
pretty close at around 160,000 to 200,000 light years away. However they are
much brighter and are easily visible to the unaided eye.
No comments:
Post a Comment