Amateur Photographer Captures Stunning Image of Small Magellanic Cloud from Chile
Petr Horálek, a NOIRLab Audiovisual Ambassador, captured a stunning image of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) using a camera and a wide-aperture telephoto lens from Cerro Pachón in Chile. The SMC, a dwarf galaxy near the Milky Way, is one of our closest galactic neighbors, located nearly 200,000 light-years away. Despite its distance, the SMC is visible to the naked eye from the Southern Hemisphere. Horálek's image, taken over four hours under dark skies, showcases the galaxy's beauty and the potential of amateur astrophotography.