A little galaxy that orbits ours — easy to see from the southern half of Earth.
Also called: the LMC.
Irregular dwarf galaxy orbiting the Milky Way, easily visible naked-eye from the Southern Hemisphere.
Irregular galaxy: No shape to speak of, usually because something pulled it about. Every kind of thing there is →
Look in the constellation Dorado/Mensa.
From the southern hemisphere, look in the summer.
Best Nov-Feb; essentially unreachable from mid-to-high northern latitudes.
The Planetarium works out where it actually is from your own place and the date — including whether it is above the horizon at all tonight.
A soft, shapeless patch of haze — no clear shape at all.
On that same scale, the Large Magellanic Cloud would be about 163 meters away — just past the finish line of the Milky Way's own 100-meter track. Light takes 163 thousand years to get here from the Large Magellanic Cloud, so what you are looking at is the Large Magellanic Cloud as it was 163 thousand years ago.
| Across | 305 000 000 000 000 000 km (305 000 000.0 billion) |
|---|---|
| Distance from us | 163,000 light-years |
Nobody flew a tape measure out there. Every number on this page was worked out from the ground:
Clear tonight? The Planetarium will show you what is worth a look. Then just go out.