Large Magellanic Cloud

The Large Magellanic Cloud, together with its apparent neighbour and relative, the Small Magellanic Cloud, are conspicuous objects in the southern hemisphere, looking like separated pieces of the Milky Way to the naked eye.

The LMC lies partly in the constellation of Mensa (the rest being in Dorado). Latin for Table this southern constellation which was first introduced by Nicolas Louis de Lacaille under the name Mons Mensae (Latin for table mountain). This specifically refers to Table Mountain in South Africa, where Lacaille made important early observations of the southern sky. It contains no bright stars, with Alpha Mensae its brightest star at a barely visible magnitude 5.0