Location / Date:

Tivoli, NAM / 30.Mai 2014

Telescope / Lens:

Starfire 127/1040

Mount:

AP1200

Camera:

Central DS Canon 60Da

Exposure time:

18x600" ISO500 -12C

Total exposure:

Description:

The large Carina Nebula also know with his catalogue number NGC 3372 is one of the jewels of the southern night sky. It extents to over 300 lightyears  and is one of the largest star forming regions of our galaxy. Just like the Orion Nebula on the northern skies the Carina Nebula can be found easily with the naked eye; even though it is in a distance of 7,500 light years, 5 times the distance to the Orion Nebula. The picture displayed here shows some prominent details of the glowing fibres of interstellar gas and opaque cosmic dust clouds. The field of view is about 70 to 100 light years. Inside the Carina Nebula young and extremely hot stars are located, among them the variable star Eta Carinae. Eta Carinae is a hypergiant with more than 100 times the mass of the sun. It is the brightest star in the center of the picture, right next to the dusty Keyhole Nebula (NGC 3324). Whilst Eta Carinae will probably blow up in a supernova in the near future x-ray pictures of the nebula reveal that the Carina Nebula is a huge „supernova plant“.

Image recording:

Gorden Konieczek

Image processing:

Nico Geisler, Frank Iwaszkiewicz, Gorden Konieczek