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NGC 3372, better known and referred to as the Eta Carina Nebula, is one of the most iconic objects in the Southern Hemisphere (if not of the whole sky). The star Eta carina itself (class B0), located in the center of the nebula, is a giant variable blue star (6.2-11.1) and is surrounded by the Homunculus Nebula (too small to be imaged except for the large telescopes, I captured an image of it with the CDK 20″ that can be found
here).
NGC 3372 is a bright (visible with the naked eye) and very large nebula. It is one of the largest HII regions in the Milky Way and four times as large as the better known
Orion Nebula (M42). A wide field of NGC 3372 can be found
here and other fragments of it
here and
here.
This fragment (South is to the lower left) shows its core region and also the bright star that gives its name to the whole nebula (Eta Carina). The image was taken with narrowband filters (Ha, OIII and SII) and mapped to the Hubble Color Palette (Ha: Green, OIII: Blue, SII: Red). Even if it seems impossible, there has not been any modification to the initial color and this very wide palette with numerous nuances is only due to the distribution of the emitting gases. The mix of Oxygen and Hydrogen in the image provides the teal and turquoise shades.
Additional Information
Name(s): NGC 3372. Eta carina Nebula. Caldwell 92
Size (arcmin): 120×120 arcmin
Date: 2023-05-04 to 2023-07-27
Location: Obstech, Río Hurtado, Chile
Size (arcmin): 30×22 arcmin
Telescope: 24” f/6.5 Reflector
Camera: Moravian C5A-100M (11760x8896pix)
Total exposure: 133h 09m (Ha: 45h 20m; OIII: 46h 40m; SII: 32h 0m; RGB: 9h 09m)
Processing: CCDStack, PixInsight (one process) and Photoshop CC 2024