The Small Magellanic Cloud is a dwarf galaxy that is a satellite of our Milky Way galaxy. It is located about 200,000 light-years away from us, and it is one of the closest galaxies to our own.

The SMC is known for its irregular shape and its rich population of stars, including many young and massive stars. It is also home to a variety of interesting objects, such as supernova remnants, star-forming regions, and planetary nebulae.

This narrowband 2x1 mosaic image highlights some of the ionized gas in the SMC, which gives clues to the ongoing star formation and the dynamics of the galaxy.

About the Deep Space Collection:

Shot entirely with my rooftop telescope from the urban skies of Buenos Aires, the Deep Space Collection features many objects observable only from the southern hemisphere.

All images in the collection were shot using individual narrowband filters which cut off most of the light and allow only very specific wavelengths to pass (the light emitted from ionized hydrogen, oxygen and sulfur), making it possible to photograph deep space objects even from the highly light polluted skies of the city.

The images from each separate filter are then processed individually, combined and mapped to RGB channels for a final color image.

Two different color mapping palettes were used in this collection: SHO, where sulfur is mapped to red, hydrogen to green and oxygen to blue in what is referred to as "Hubble Palette" processing (as used in the images the famous space telescope) and HOO, where hydrogen is mapped to red, and oxygen to blue and green.