Deep Sky · 4 of 5

The Clouds of Magellan

What are the two clouds that never drift with the weather?

Two pale patches by the south celestial pole that never move with the weather: the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, galaxies beside our own.

You’ll be able to find the two Magellanic Clouds by eye and say what they are.

8 steps · about 6 min

Before this: The Southern Cross (6 min)

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Sources

HYG stellar database v4.2 — star positions, magnitudes and every separation quoted here
d3-celestial deep-sky catalogue with OpenNGC position angles — positions of the Clouds and the clusters
Pietrzyński et al., "A distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud that is precise to one per cent", Nature 567, 200 (2019) — 49.59 kpc, about 162,000 light-years
Graczyk et al., "A distance determination to the Small Magellanic Cloud with an accuracy of better than two percent", ApJ 904, 13 (2020) — 62.44 kpc, about 204,000 light-years
Harris, "A catalog of parameters for globular clusters in the Milky Way" (1996; 2010 edition) — ω Cen at 5.2 kpc, the most luminous in the catalogue
Harris (2010 edition), the catalogue table — 47 Tuc at 4.5 kpc, about 14,700 light-years
Dennefeld, "A history of the Magellanic Clouds and the European exploration of the Southern Hemisphere", The Messenger 181 (2020) — al-Sufi's Book of Fixed Stars (c. 964) on al-bakar beneath Canopus, seen neither in Iraq nor Najd
Hamacher & Frew, "An Aboriginal Australian record of the Great Eruption of Eta Carinae", JAHH 13, 220 (2010) — the Boorong of Lake Tyrrell and their names, Kourt-chin for the Magellanic Clouds
Morieson, The Night Sky of the Boorong, MA thesis, University of Melbourne (1996) — Stanbridge (1857): "The larger cloud a male, and the lesser cloud a female Native Companion", the brolga

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Face south on a dark night and two pale patches hang there, like scraps torn off the Milky Way. Real clouds drift past; these two keep their places among the stars, night after night, year after year. What are they?

Start from Canopus, the second-brightest star of the night. The Large Cloud lies about halfway from it to the pole of the sky, two fists away: a glow too broad to be a star.

From Achernar, halfway to the pole again, sits the Small Cloud. The two Clouds and the south celestial pole make a near-even triangle, two fists a side. No star marks the pole, so the Clouds do: straight below that empty corner is due south.

Their tags say why they never drift: they are galaxies, satellites of our Milky Way, far beyond every star you see. The fuzzy star beside the Small Cloud, 47 Tucanae, is a globular cluster of old stars inside our galaxy: side by side, nowhere near.

Across the pole from the Clouds stands the Southern Cross. A finger from its Mimosa glitters the Jewel Box. A fist and a half from Hadar is Omega Centauri, our galaxy’s brightest globular cluster.

Around 964, al-Sufi’s Book of Fixed Stars passed on a report of white stars beneath Canopus, never seen from Iraq, called al-Bakr, the cattle: probably the Large Cloud. To the Boorong of north-west Victoria the pair were Kourt-chin, a male and a female brolga.

Walk north and the Large Cloud sinks. North of about 20°N it never rises: for Europe and most of North America and Asia, a sky to travel for.

Try both hops by eye on the next dark night.

Canopus and Achernar point halfway to the pole
Two small galaxies circling our own