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NGC 3293 is the open cluster that appears just in front of a red nebulosity with a definite structure. This cluster is pretty young. Its stars have formed in two waves. The first one was about 20 million years ago and the then formed stars can be seen now as the redder stars around the cluster. The second “wave”, which happened about 5-6 million years ago, provided a large set of blue stars. The strongly radiating stars do not have had yet enough time to carve/modify the beautiful filamentary structure of the nebula.
This image has been taken in both broadband (LRGB) and narrowband (Halpha and OIII) in order to provide the right colors of the reflection nebula as well as higher contrast (crispier) details in the structure of the nebula.
Additional Information
Object
Name(s): NGC 3293
Type: Open cluster and surrounding nebulosity
RA: 10h 35m 34s
Dec: -58º 07’ 21”
Constellation: Carina
Size (arcmin): 9×9 (cluster)
Magnitude: +5
Distance: 8,000 ly
Image
Date: 2018-03-08 thru 2018-03-17
Location: iTelescope.net, SSO near Coonabarabran, NSW Australia
Size (arcmin): 36×36
Telescope: Planewave CDK 20” f/6.8
Camera: SBIG STX16803 (4096x4096pix)
Guiding: Astrodon MonsterMOAG off-axis guider
Total exposure: 15h 20m (Ha: 9.5 h; OIII: 1 h; L: 1 h; RGB: 3h 50m)
Processing: CCDStack, Photoshop CC 2018