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The Tilt of the LMC

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2016

S. C. B. Gascoigne  and
R. R. Shobbrook
S. C. B. Gascoigne
Affiliation:
Mount Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatory Australian National University
R. R. Shobbrook
Affiliation:
University of Sydney
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Extract

It has been accepted since the mid-1950’s that the LMC is a flat rotating body, with its plane inclined at an angle of about 27° to the line of sight and so nearly face on, and its line of nodes running 10° west of north (de Vaucouleurs and Freeman 1972). The inclination is inferred from the ellipticity of the outermost optical and radio isophotes but there has been no convincing way to fix its sense — whether the E or W side is nearer. Some years ago the late Dr David Thackeray suggested to one of us (SCBG) that this could be done by comparing the magnitudes of cepheids on the extreme E and W sides of the Cloud. With the discovery of the Magellanic Stream and the great increase of interest in the spatial geometry and dynamics of the Clouds and Galaxy complex, the sense of the tilt of the LMC has become a matter of importance, and we decided to go ahead with the project.

Type
Extra-galactic
Information
Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia , Volume 3 , Issue 4 , 1978 , pp. 285 - 286
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of Australia 1978

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References

van den Bergh, S., IAU Colloquium No. 37 = CNRS Colloquium No. 263 (1977).Google Scholar
Lin, D. N. C. and Lynden-Bell, D., Mon. Not. Roy. Aston. Soc, 181, 37 (1977).Google Scholar
de Vaucouleurs, G. and Freeman, K.C., Vistas in Astronomy, Vol. 14 p. 163, ed. Arthur Beer (1972).Google Scholar