It's not easy to capture stunning space views. At least, that was the case for photographer and NOIRLab Audiovisual Ambassador Petr Horálek. Using a commercial camera and a wide-aperture telephoto lens, Horálek photographed the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy over three nights from Cerro Pachón in Chile, the home of Gemini South, part of the U.S. National Science Foundation's International Gemini Observatory.

The long integration time, spanning around four hours, allowed faint galactic features to emerge: the luminous central bar, wisps of star-forming regions, and the soft surrounding glow of billions of stars.

What is it?

The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is one of the Milky Way's closest and most intriguing companions. Visible primarily from the Southern Hemisphere, this dwarf galaxy ha

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