Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Tucana (Tuc)  ·  Contains:  HD8353  ·  HD8479  ·  HD9210  ·  HD9489  ·  IC 1662  ·  NGC 456  ·  NGC 460  ·  NGC 465  ·  NGC 602

Image of the day 11/01/2024

    NGC 456 and NGC 602 | A Bubbly Complex on the Edge of the SMC, Kevin Morefield
      NGC 456 and NGC 602 | A Bubbly Complex on the Edge of the SMC, Kevin Morefield

      NGC 456 and NGC 602 | A Bubbly Complex on the Edge of the SMC

      Image of the day 11/01/2024

        NGC 456 and NGC 602 | A Bubbly Complex on the Edge of the SMC, Kevin Morefield
          NGC 456 and NGC 602 | A Bubbly Complex on the Edge of the SMC, Kevin Morefield

          NGC 456 and NGC 602 | A Bubbly Complex on the Edge of the SMC

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          Description

          This nebula complex is located on the edge of the SMC.  On the right side of this image we see the stars of the SMC become more densely packed.   The object is SHO done in a Foraxx palette with RGB stars.  The yellows represent the areas with the strongest SII.  I looked at blending the RGB object data in but it's not strong at all and would not have adding anything.  

          Shooting nebulae in the Magellanic clouds always leaves me a little disappointed with things looking a soft.  While I could have gotten a bit smaller FWHMs, I think the main issue is one of scale.  This is kind of like shooting all of Orion and Barnard's Loop, which is maybe 1000 light years away, except these stars and nebulae are 200 times farther out.  So the stars are dense and not well resolved and the nebula details is really small.   I'll try to resist my urge to pixel peep....

          NGC 456 refers to this open cluster and nebula:

          image.png

          And NGC 602 refers to the open cluster of young stars being formed in the bright teal area.  Interestingly, the faint blue sphere to te right of the cluster is a SuperNova remnant with an X-ray pulsar at the center.  Thanks to @Kartik Atre for bringing that to my attention and providing this link about the Pulsar: https://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2011/sxp1062/

          image.png

          I've framed up a mosaic of the full SMC.  Hopefully some year this data can be added for an even fuller picture of the area.

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            NGC 456 and NGC 602 | A Bubbly Complex on the Edge of the SMC, Kevin Morefield
            Original
            NGC 456 and NGC 602 | A Bubbly Complex on the Edge of the SMC, Kevin Morefield
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          NGC 456 and NGC 602 | A Bubbly Complex on the Edge of the SMC, Kevin Morefield