NGC 395, 371 and 346 in the SMC

Constellation: Tucana

The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) contains numerous interesting objects. Here we see NGC 395, NGC 371 and NGC 346 (east to west) in the northern part of the SMC, in the constellation Tucana. They are located about 200’000 Ly from Earth. Just south of NGC 364 we see the star cluster IC 1624, and south of NGC 395 we see the cluster IC 1611.  Link to interactive sky chart.

NGC 395 (top) is a cluster of stars associated with a HII regions. The star cluster IC 1624 is located south of NGC 395. SE of IC 1624 we find the emission line star LHA 115-N 78C just west of SkKM 289, a red supergiant candidate. They seem surrounded by the SNR [FBR2002] J010539-720341.  Further SE from this location we see the intricate Hα filaments of the HII region DEM S 131.

The open cluster NGC 371 containing many Be star candidates and associated with a broad emission nebula, a Wolf-Rayet star (SMC AB 7), red supergiant candidates (e.g. PMMR 146 in the quasi-center of the image), the SNR MCSNR J0103-7201, HII regions and two candidate planetary nebulae. To the east of NGC 371 we see the SNR MCSNR J0104-7201.

South of NGC 371 we find the red supergiant Cl* NGC 371 LE C12 that appears to be surrounded by the SNR B0101-72.6 (MCELS-S146).

NGC 346 is a cluster of stars associate with a bright emission nebula associated with HII regions and many young stellar objects.

Telescope & Mount:

Planewave CDK14 on a Paramount MX mount.

Imaging:

Camera: Player One Zeus-Mono (bin 2×2)

Data:
Ha: 104x600s
O3: 100x600s
S2: 94x600s

Stars:
Red: 138x60s
Green: 120x60s
Blue: 102x60s

Total integration time: 55h 40′