Dorado is a constellation in the Southern Sky. It was named in the late 16th century and is now one of the 88 modern constellations. Its name refers to the mahi-mahi, which is known as dorado ("golden") in Spanish, although it has also been depicted as a swordfish. Dorado contains most of the Large Magellanic Cloud, the remainder being in the constellation Mensa. The South Ecliptic pole also lies within this constellation.
A globular cluster is a spheroidal conglomeration of stars that is bound together by gravity, with a higher concentration of stars towards their centers. They can contain anywhere from tens of thousands to many millions of member stars, all orbiting in a stable, compact formation. Globular clusters are similar in form to dwarf spheroidal galaxies, and the distinction between the two is not always clear. Their name is derived from Latin globulus. Globular clusters are occasionally known simply as "globulars".
The Tarantula Nebula is a large H II region in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), forming its south-east corner.
NGC 2022 is a planetary nebula in the equatorial constellation of Orion, located at a distance of 8.21 kilolight-years from the Sun. It was first observed by William Herschel on December 28, 1785, who described it as: considerably bright, nearly round, like a star with a large diameter, like an ill-defined planetary nebula. In medium-sized amateur telescopes it looks like a small grayish patch of light. It is not very bright but it is still easy to spot it in the eyepiece. Even in a telescope as small as 80mm it can just be seen using a narrowband filter such as an OIII filter as a 'fuzzy' star. The object has the shape of a prolate spheroid with a major to minor axis ratio of 1.2, an apparent size of 28″, and a halo extending out to 40″, which is about the angular diameter of Jupiter as seen from Earth.
NGC 602 is a young, bright open cluster of stars located in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), a satellite galaxy to the Milky Way. It is embedded in a nebula known as N90.
R136a1 is one of the most massive and luminous stars known, at 196 M☉ and nearly 4.7 million L☉, and is also one of the hottest, at around 46,000 K. It is a Wolf–Rayet star at the center of R136, the central concentration of stars of the large NGC 2070 open cluster in the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The cluster can be seen in the far southern celestial hemisphere with binoculars or a small telescope, at magnitude 7.25. R136a1 itself is 100 times fainter than the cluster and can only be resolved using speckle interferometry.
AB7, also known as SMC WR7, is a binary star in the Small Magellanic Cloud. A Wolf–Rayet star and a supergiant companion of spectral type O orbit in a period of 19.56 days. The system is surrounded by a ring-shaped nebula known as a bubble nebula.
NGC 1806 is a globular cluster located within the Large Magellanic Cloud within the constellation of Dorado, an area of the sky best seen from the Earth's southern hemisphere. It was discovered in 1836 by the British astronomer John Herschel. At an aperture of 50 arcseconds, its apparent V-band magnitude is 11.00, but at this wavelength, it has 0.05 magnitudes of interstellar extinction.
NGC 2257 is a globular cluster that lies on the outskirts of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). It was discovered in 1834 by John Herschel. The compiler of the New General Catalogue, John Louis Emil Dreyer, described this cluster as "faint, considerably large, round, very gradually a little brighter middle, mottled but not resolved, 17.0 seconds of time diameter." At an aperture of 30.5 arcseconds, its apparent V-band magnitude is 12.62, but at this wavelength, it has 0.12 magnitudes of interstellar extinction.
NGC 339 is a globular cluster in the constellation Tucana the Toucan. It is located both visually and physically in the Small Magellanic Cloud, being only about 10,000 ± 12,000 light years closer than the cloud. It is rather prominent, being the brightest cluster in the southern reaches of the cloud. It was discovered by John Herschel on September 18, 1835. It was observed in 2005 by the Hubble Space Telescope. Its apparent V-band magnitude is 12.12, but at this wavelength, it has 0.19 magnitudes of interstellar extinction.
NGC 1783 is a globular cluster within the Dorado constellation and part of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite dwarf galaxy of the Milky Way. At an aperture of 50 arcseconds, its apparent V-band magnitude is 10.39, making it one of the brightest globular clusters in the LMC as viewed from Earth. It was discovered in 1835 by John Herschel. The compiler of the New General Catalogue, John Louis Emil Dreyer, described this cluster as "considerably bright, large, round, very gradually pretty much brighter middle, mottled but not resolved."
NGC 152 is an open cluster in the constellation Tucana. It was discovered by John Herschel on September 20, 1835. It is located within the Small Magellanic Cloud.
NGC 330 is an open cluster in the Small Magellanic Cloud. It is located in the constellation Tucana. It was discovered on 1 August 1826 by James Dunlop. It was described by Dreyer as "a globular cluster, very bright, small, a little extended, stars from 13th to 15th magnitude." At an aperture of 31.0 arcseconds, the apparent V-band magnitude is 9.60, but at this wavelength, it also has 0.36 magnitudes of interstellar extinction.
NGC 361 is an open cluster in the Small Magellanic Cloud. It is located in the constellation Tucana. It was discovered on September 6, 1826, by James Dunlop. It was described by Dreyer as "very very faint, pretty large, very little extended, very gradually brighter middle." At an aperture of 31.0 arcseconds, its apparent V-band magnitude is 12.24, but at this wavelength, it has 0.40 magnitudes of interstellar extinction.
NGC 411 is a globular cluster located approximately 55,000 pc (180,000 ly) from Earth in the constellation Tucana. It was discovered in 1826 by James Dunlop. It was described by Dreyer as "extremely faint, pretty large, round, gradually very little brighter middle". At a distance of about 180,000 light years (55,000 parsecs), it is located within the Small Magellanic Cloud. It has a mass of about 3.0×104 M☉, and a luminosity of about 8.0×104 L☉.
NGC 416 is a globular cluster located in the constellation Tucana. It was discovered on September 5, 1826, by James Dunlop. It was described by Dreyer as "faint, pretty small, round, gradually brighter middle". At a distance of about 199,000 ± 9,800 ly (61,000 ± 3,000 pc), it is located within the Small Magellanic Cloud. At an aperture of 31 arcseconds, its apparent V-band magnitude is 11.42, but at this wavelength, it has 0.25 magnitudes of interstellar extinction.
NGC 419 is a globular cluster located approximately 57,000 pc (190,000 ly) from Earth in the constellation Tucana. It was discovered on September 2, 1826, by James Dunlop. It was described by Dreyer as "pretty large, pretty bright, round, gradually brighter middle". At a distance of about 186,000 light years, it is located within the Small Magellanic Cloud. At an aperture of 50 arcseconds, its apparent V-band magnitude is 10.30, but at this wavelength, it has 0.15 magnitudes of interstellar extinction.
NGC 458 is an open cluster located in the constellation Tucana. It was discovered on September 6, 1826, by James Dunlop. It was also observed by John Herschel and DeLisle Stewart. It was described by Dreyer as "pretty faint, large, round, very gradually brighter middle". It was also noted in the second Index Catalogue that it was "probably a cluster, extremely small, close, no nebulosity seen by D.S. ." At an aperture of 31 arcseconds, its apparent V-band magnitude is 11.73, but at this wavelength, it has 0.12 magnitudes of interstellar extinction.
NGC 1978 is an elliptical shaped globular cluster or open cluster in the constellation Dorado. It is located within the Large Magellanic Cloud. It was discovered by James Dunlop on November 6, 1826. At an aperture of 50 arcseconds, its apparent V-band magnitude is 10.20, but at this wavelength, it has 0.16 magnitudes of interstellar extinction. It appears 3.9 arcminutes wide. NGC 1978 has a radial velocity of 293.1 ± 0.9 km/s.
N11 is the brightest emission nebula in the north-west part of the Large Magellanic Cloud in the Dorado constellation. The N11 complex is the second largest H II region of that galaxy, the largest being the Tarantula Nebula. It covers an area approximately 6 arc minutes across. It has an elliptical shape and consists of a large bubble, generally clear interstellar area, surrounded by nine large nebulae. It was named by Karl Henize in 1956.
