Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC)
A satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. From Guyana it never climbs high: at its best it stands about 14° above the southern horizon from Georgetown and about 17° from Lethem. Look for a faint, detached patch of Milky Way glow low in the south from a dark site with a clear southern horizon; town lights and haze near the horizon hide it.
Galaxy in Dorado. Magnitude 0.9.
Can you see it from Guyana?
From Georgetown (6.8° N) it climbs to 14° above the southern horizon at its highest; from Lethem (3.4° N), to 17° above the southern horizon. It is highest at midnight on the night of 9 Dec, in the middle of its season. The page works out tonight's rise, highest point and set for both towns in Guyana time (UTC-4), and where the Moon is.
What you'll see
- Your eyes: Visible to the eye from a dark site as a detached piece of the Milky Way. From Guyana it only reaches 13° above the southern horizon (17° from Lethem).
- 10x50 binoculars: Sweep it for star clouds, clusters and the Tarantula Nebula.
- A small telescope (80 to 100 mm): Dozens of clusters and nebulae, but low haze near the horizon dims them from Guyana.
- A camera: A 50 mm lens frames it; a tracker helps.
How big, how bright, how far
- Size on the sky: 646′ × 550′, 21 Moons across (the Moon is about 31′ wide).
- Brightness: magnitude 0.9. Brighter than the faintest stars Georgetown shows (4.3), and Lethem's (6.0).
- Distance: 163,000 light-years. The light reaching your eye left it about 160,000 years ago.
Apparent size from OpenNGC (Mattia Verga), CC-BY-SA-4.0.
What it is made of
- Type
- Dwarf Galaxy
- Distance
- Approx. 163,000 Lightyears
- True size
- Approx. 14,000 Lightyears diameter
- Stars (Billions): Young blue stars, older populations, star clusters
- Interstellar Gas & Dust: Rich in HII regions like Tarantula Nebula
- Dark Matter: Significant component, inferred gravitationally
More deep-sky objects: Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) · Sculptor Galaxy (NGC 253) · Centaurus A (NGC 5128) · Southern Pinwheel Galaxy (M83) · M77 (Cetus A) · Sombrero Galaxy (M104)