The Carina Nebula is a large bright nebula that has within its boundaries several related open clusters of stars.
Eta Carinae and HD 93129A, two of the most massive and luminous stars in our Milky Way galaxy, are among them. The nebula lies at an estimated distance between 6,500 and 10,000 light years from Earth. It appears in the constellation of Carina, and is located in the Carina–Sagittarius Arm. The nebula contains multiple O-type stars.

The nebula is one of the largest diffuse nebulae in our skies. Although it is some four times as large and even brighter than the famous Orion Nebula, the Carina Nebula is much less well known, due to its location in the southern sky. It was discovered by Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in 1751–52 from the Cape of Good Hope.

Imaging telescopes or lenses: Celestron C8 SCT
Imaging cameras: Nikon D5000
Mounts: Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro Goto
Focal reducers: Celestron f/6.3 Focal Reducer/Corrector
Software: DeepSkyStacker, Startools 1.3, PHD guiding, photoshop, Leandro Fornaziero Pardal Astronomy controls
Dates: Feb. 17, 2014
Frames: 60×60″
Integration: 1.0 hours

Autor: Leandro Fornaziero

AstroPhotography of the day by SPONLI

24 February 2014

We select the best works of amateur astrophotographers with details of equipment, shooting processing etc.

The Carina Nebula (also known as the Great Nebula in Carina, the Eta Carinae Nebula, NGC 3372, as well as the Grand Nebula) is a large bright nebula that has within its boundaries several related open clusters of stars. Some papers generally refer to this as the Carina Nebula, mostly because of differentiating the many paper published on this object, but the historical precedence as determined by southern observers like James Dunlop and John Herschel, who have both termed it the Eta Argus Nebula or Eta Carinae Nebula. John Herschel also describes “The star η Argus, with the Great nebula about it.” with many of his subsequent published papers supporting this.

Imaging telescopes or lenses: Takahashi FS60C
Imaging cameras: SBIG 8300M
Mounts: Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro GoTo HEQ5 Pro GoTo
Guiding telescopes or lenses: APO TS 80mm/480mm
Guiding cameras: Starlight Xpress Lodestar
Software: PixInsight 1.8 RC7
Filters: Astrodon Ha 5nm
Dates: Jan. 10, 2014
Frames: Astrodon Ha 5nm: 5×600″ bin 1×1
Integration: 0.8 hours
Darks: ~5

Autor:  Roberto Colombari

AstroPhotography of the day by SPONLI

14 January 2014

We select the best works of amateur astrophotographers with details of equipment, shooting processing etc.