Southern Hemisphere - Which Constellation?

[randum]

Hi,

My father took this picture with his DSLR in Brazil. It looks like there's some deep sky objects in there and I'd like to identify them. The problem is that there are so many stars that I can't figure out which part of the sky it is!

I'd appreciate some help in identifying some of the brighter stars in the picture.... Also, if you can, let me know how you figured it out! I'm used to observing in the Boston suburbs, where the limiting magnitude is about 6.

Thanks,

Randum

[Nexus 6]

Hi randum, your pic shows both the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, both of which I would love to see one day! At least they appear to look like them.

I do know they are both outstanding Southern Hemisphere imaging/observing targets

File:Magellanic Clouds ? Irregular Dwarf Galaxies .jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[QldLiz]

Not sure Randum, was the image taken as a widefield on a tripod, or tracking with a scope. There is a lot of colour and detail there.

They dont look like the Magellanic clouds to me, they usually just show up us fuzzy patches, unless tracking is involved.

Carina has some lovely deep SKy objects?? Will have a look further.

A beautiful image by your Dad.

[randum]

Thank you both for your responses!

At first, I did suspect the Magellanic Clouds. I want it to be them. It would be cool for him to have taken pictures of galaxies like that, but I suspect it is not.

The picture was taken by the Amazon river, where there is virtually no light pollution. He told me he used a (slightly unstable) tripod for his pictures, without tracking.

I'll take a look at Carina star charts to see if I can get the stars to line up....

Thanks,

Randum

[southernman]

Looks like eta carinae to me with ngc3532 above and to the left. Nice widefield shot.

[randum]

Yeah, I think you're right!

There's another red smudge on the left. I think it's IC 2948 near Lambda Centauri with the Pearl Cluster (NGC 3766) up and to the right of that.

This is very exciting; thanks, guys for your help.

Clear skys,

Randum