16″ at 228x: NGC 1967 is a lovely cluster, appearing as a bright and somewhat clump-looking, ~25″ knot of stars with half a dozen resolved stars, 4 of which lie in a string along the west side. It has a rich glow of unresolved stars and a mag 13 star lies on its eastern side.

16″ at 228x: Small and delicate LH 57 consists of a couple of mag 14+ stars and a few tiny pinprick stars scattered against N143’s very faint patch of misty nebulosity. The nebulosity has a weak response to the UHC filter; its faint mistiness melting away at its edges into the surrounding darkness.

16″ at 228x: Lying a mere 2.3′ NE of NGC 1967, BSDL 1781 is a surprisingly pretty collection of stars. It appears as a N-S 1.5′ string of stars in which half a dozen mag 13-14.5 stars are resolved against the faint glow of unresolved stars.

16″ at 228x: BSDL 1796 appears as a faint, small, round smudge of starlight; it looks like a smudgy star.

16″ at 228x: This is a very pretty little cluster with a very unusual member! The cluster appears as a very bright, dense, round, 20″ knot of stars whose edges are tantalisingly gritty, although no stars are resolved.  On the cluster’s western side, a 4′ string of stars curves away to the SSE ending at mag 11.3 HD 269586. Along the string one finds the tiny cluster BSDL 1818 which looks like a fuzzy star, as well as the mag 13.4 Wolf-Rayet star, Brey 36.

Karl Henize noted that star-like nebula N145 “lies on the southwest edge of the cluster NGC 1984”, and a close look at 333x reveals its faint 16.4 glimmer – it is a proto-planetary nebula! What an extraordinary thing to see in another galaxy!

16″ at 130x: LH 61 is absolutely gorgeous! It is rich and fills the field with at least 30 bright and faint stars. But what is most striking is a 6ʹ N-S chain of ten bright mag 10.5-12 stars that look (in the telescope, but not on the image) exactly like the wings of a vulture, banking to the left as it soars on a thermal, its head – the small bright cluster SL 492 – angled down to spot carrion in the veld. And its heart is the delightful and rare bright spark of mag 11.1 luminous blue variable star, LHA 120-S 83 (lying east of SL 492)! At 228x, the vulture’s wingspan fills the field of view and SL 492 appears as a superb bright cluster, 25″ in diameter, with five stars resolved against a background of unresolved stars. The easternmost “star”, the brightest of the small stars, is a compact cluster, R158.

16″ at 228x: A charming arc of 8 stars jutting out from the western side of LH 64 = NGC 2001 looks as if it tethers this little cluster to the beautiful big association of bright stars. The cluster appears bright, round, ~20″ in diameter, with no stars resolved. A mag 12.5 star lies just off its western side and a triangle of small bright stars lie to the north of it.

16″ at 228x: Lying in a gloriously star-rich region of the supergiant shell, this cluster appears as a very bright knot of stars, 20″ in diameter and slightly elongated E-W, surrounded by a rich carpet of mag 13-15 stars which give the cluster the unusual appearance of a small tight cluster within a larger looser cluster. Very pretty! No stars are resolved in the knot, although it interesting to note that within that bright knot lies a compact cluster – R105.

16″ at 228x: This small cluster appears as a fairly bright, round glow, 15″ in diameter. No stars are resolved. A mag 13.4 star lies just NW of it.

16″ at 228x: HS 319 appears faint, ~15″ in diameter, and round; no stars resolved. All I can see of BRHT 52b, which lies close off HS 319’s SE side, is the mag 11.4 star, HD 269612.

16″ at 228x: Simply gorgeous! LH 64 = NGC 2001 appears as an elongated NNE-SSW 6.5′ x 2.5′ cloud of around fifty or so resolved stars, including a number of beautifully bright mag 12-13 stars, some pretty stellar patterns, along with lovely pools of delicately glowing unresolved stars scattered here and there. Mag 10.7 star HD 269609 anchors the southwest end of the cloud. The cluster BSDL 1924 appears as a small bright knot, with the faint mag 15.3 Wolf-Rayet star, Brey 39, lying just to its southeast. Cluster KMHK 953 appears as a small, fairly faint knot lying among the stars. An unusual, curved runner of 8 stars juts out the western side of the cloud, curving southwards in a beautiful arc towards the bright, small cluster SL 495 (which is not part of LH 64). It is always a charming stellar composition when a string of stars, like dainty stepping stones, appears to connect two otherwise unconnected objects.

16″ at 228x: BSDL 1934 appears as a mag 12 star, with a mag 13 star very close north, and another mag 13 star to the east. There is a very faint glow of unresolved stars just south of the three resolved stars.

16″ at 228x: BSDL 1982 is a pretty arrangement of three stars in a E-W row (mag 11.8, mag 13.9 and mag 12.8) and just south of them on the east side, the cluster KMK88 60, which appears as a very faint, stellar smudge.  Mag 13.7 Wolf-Rayet star Brey 41 lies just southwest of the tiny cluster, and all of it is set against a very faint haze of unresolved stars.

16″ at 228x: This cluster appears as a beautifully bright, round, 40″ glow, studded with around 10 mag 13.5-15.5 resolved stars whose light almost seems overwhelmed by the background unresolved stars’ light. Very unusual and very lovely! Lying in a rich star field, the cluster is surrounded by around 10 mag 12 and fainter stars, and a lovely arc lies to its southwest, comprising four mag 12-13 stars, open to the south.

In this star-rich region, the two OB associations, LH 67 and LH 74 lie parallel to each other, and at first glance they appear to be one vast star cloud, with LH 67 seeming to spread out on the western side of LH 74. However closer observation reveals a subtle less-starry gap between the two.

16″ at 228x: LH 67 appears well detached against the star-rich glow of this region of the LMC. It extends NNW-SSE 3.5ʹ x 1.5ʹ with about a dozen mag 13-15 stars resolved stars against a rich background haze of unresolved stars. The cluster KMK88 62 lies at its NNW end and appears as a small, faint and irregular glow.

16″ at 228x: This association appears as two small, faint cloudlets of mist that are surprisingly obvious once you know where to look. Oriented E-W, the westernmost patch is the ~20″ cluster SL 541; the easternmost is ~15″ KMHK 1025. Increasing the magnification to 333x there are no stars resolved in SL 541, but the cluster appears grainy looking around the edges against the glow of unresolved stars. KMHK 1025 remains a faint glow of unresolved stars.

16″ at 228x: The large N148 is invisible but for a couple of pockets around LH 71 and LH 73. N148C’s ionising star is a pretty special star – mag 10.6 LBV R116! It dominates LH 71 and has a pair of small stars to its northwest. The small cluster BCDSP 7 lies to the LBV’s southwest and appears at 333x as a pair of small stars in a very small and pale glow of unresolved stars. A very faint arc of nebulosity envelops the north and western side of the association, and it responds well to the UHC filter, appearing faint, smooth and with no discernible edges, it simply fades away into the surrounding sky.

16″ at 228x: Lying in the southern reaches of the large, and for the most part invisible N148, this OB association appears as a small but obvious gathering of five stars, four of which, ~mag 14+, form a small, crooked roughly E-W arc open to the south; the fifth, a small faint star, lying to the southeast of the arc. They are immersed in a very faint wash of nebulosity. The nebulosity has a fairly good response to the UHC filter,  appearing faint, roundish, and without edges, it simply fades away into the dark.

16″ at 228x: This is a beautiful cloud of stars! Large and full of stars, it is fairly well detached considering the rich region of the LMC in which it lies. It extends NNW-SSE 5ʹ x 3ʹ, its NW end almost reaching the bright glow of NGC 2009. Around twenty or so mag 12.5-15 stars lie scattered in a haphazard fashion over a rich haze of unresolved stars, which has the unusual quality of appearing as an even glow across the entire association.

There is a nice stellar “busyness” along its eastern edge with a few of the bright stars strung in a rich line along with a binary pair – SL 557 (which is often taken for NGC 2015) and BRHT 15b (see below).

16″ at 228x: These two clusters, oriented NW-SE, lie within the star cloud LH 74 = NGC 2015. SL 557, the northwestern of the two clusters, appears fairly bright, 25″ in diameter, with an outline that is irregular to the point of jagged. It contains a mag 13.7 star surrounded by a few pinprick stars that dance in and out of view in the lovely glow of unresolved stars. BRHT 15b appears as a faint, round, even glow, ~15″ in diameter; no stars resolved.

16″ at 228x: KMHK 1047 lies at the southwest end of a pretty NNE-SSW arc of 4 small stars, open to the southeast. It looks like a very far away streetlight seen on a wet and misty evening – a soft, ~15″ glow with hazy edges. No stars resolved.

16″ at 228x: KMHK 1060 appears as a small and faint round smudge of unresolved stars.

16″ at 228x + O III filter: There is a trio of stars to the west that help pinpoint this little planetary nebula’s location. It lies 3.5′ SW of the northernmost star, mag 10.2 HD 269747, and 3.8 E of the southernmost star, mag 11.3 HD 269738. Without a filter, the little planetary nebula appears as nothing more than another mag 14.9 star lying among the Cloud’s multitudes of stars, but adding the OIII filter dimmed the surrounding stars significantly and gave the tiny star-sized planetary nebula the unmistakable glow, the colour of moonlight, that the Cloud’s planetary nebulae all exhibit.