ISSC Highlights · Weeks 37–38, 2025
NGC 292: The Small Magellanic Cloud
Submitted by Astrorockk in the ISSC Discord
Observing from a backyard in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Astrorockk captured NGC 292, the Small Magellanic Cloud: a dwarf irregular galaxy roughly 200,000 light-years away and about half the size of its larger neighbor, the LMC. It is visible to the naked eye from sufficiently dark locations.
The setup: a Sky-Watcher HEQ5 PRO mount paired with a Rokinon/Samyang 135mm f/2.0 lens and a ZWO ASI585MC Pro camera, giving a pixel scale of 2.29″/px over a 3.79° × 2.21° field of view. Luminance came from 190 frames at 180 seconds (9 hours 30 minutes, September 14 and 16), and multiband data from 100 frames at 300 seconds (8 hours 20 minutes, September 4 and 5). In total, that's 17 hours 50 minutes of integration across four nights.
“I shot this over a couple of weeks during early September and tried to keep the image appear natural while also bringing out the narrowband emission.”
Astrorockk, via Astrobin
© 2025 Astrorockk. Licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.