Large Magellanic Cloud - Galapagos Night Landscape Astrophotography

The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is one of the iconic features of the southern sky — especially for a northern-hemisphere observer like myself.

I first saw the Large Magellanic Cloud a few years earlier from Peru, but there it hovered very low above the horizon. This time, from the Galápagos Islands, I finally experienced it properly — high enough in the sky to fully appreciate its shape and brightness.

The small, whitish “cloud” visible on the right side of the image is not a weather cloud at all. It is the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf companion galaxy of the Milky Way, containing roughly one percent of the Milky Way’s mass.

The position of the LMC can be located using the Southern Cross (Crux), which serves as a familiar reference point in the southern sky. Under the exceptionally dark and transparent night skies of the Galápagos, the view of the LMC was truly striking.

Large Magellanic Cloud - Galapagos Night Landscape Astrophotography

Large Magellanic Cloud over Puerto Villamil, Isabela Island, Galápagos, Ecuador.

Canon EOS 60Da, Canon EF 16–35mm f/2.8L II USM
30 seconds · f/4.0 · ISO 6400

Related Galápagos & Equatorial Sky Astrophotography:

• Milky Way Over Galápagos – Astrophotography
• Crux (Southern Cross), Milky Way and Palm Tree – Galápagos Night Sky
• Sky Ladder – Galápagos Nightscape Astrophotography
• Moonset – Galápagos Ecuador Astrophotography
• Milky Way Tanzania Astrophotography
• Why the Equatorial Sky Glows More Red