Carina Nebula Up Close

[furgle]

I originally wanted to try to get a photo of the Homunculus Nebula, but it was way too bright. Since everything was set up and calibrated, I moved the Eta Carinae out of frame and found a little star cluster to center on (Trumpler 14).

To see all the little dust pillars, bok globules, and two items on my todo list, the Keyhole Nebula and the Finger of God. I didn't even know they were in the photo until I started processing the data yesterday.

I'm also quite happy to see there are three distinct colours, as I was expecting mainly hydrogen-alpha when I started imaging.


Click here for higher resolution (https://observatory.site/astrophotography/Carina_Nebula_Up_Close/)


**Image:**

* 67x 450s 6nm S-II
* 66x 450s 6nm H-α
* 87x 450s 6nm O-III

Total integration 27.5 hours.

**Hardware:**

* Celestron 11" EdgeHD
* Skywatcher EQ8 Pro mount
* QSI 683-ws8 Camera @ -15°C
* Astronomik 6nm narrowband filters
* Starlight Xpress Lodestar X2 Autoguider
* Starlight Xpress Active Optics
* Innovations Foresight On Axis Guider
* Starlight Instruments Focus Boss II

**Location:**

* Imaged on 9 nights between 21st February and 31st March 2019.
* Orange zone in Brisbane. (Bortle 7)

**Software:**

* Planning & camera alignment with Aladin 10
* Captured with TheSkyX Professional
* Guiding with PHD2
* FocusLock live focusing
* PixInsight: Calibrate, align, stack, deconvolution, pixelmath SHO combination, histogram stretch, curves, reduction of magenta star halos.
* Photoshop CC: Saturation, high pass filter, annotations.

[multiweb]

Beautiful pic. Very nicely done. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Geoff45]

Really good Adam. It’s a nice take on what is (for me) a rather boring object. Eta Carinae images really need something special to differentiate them from just “another pic of eta”. I think you’ve done that. Great detail and good colour combo.
Just one niggle: pity you didn’t get some more detail below the keyhole. Maybe a mosaic?
Geoff

[LaughingBeagles]

Brilliant shot mate. How do you find the ONAG?

[Capella_Ben]

Excellent work from close to Brisbane. Seems you light pollution is slightly worse than mine. Makes your image all the more impressive!

[gb44]

Fascinating region.
Excellent resolution.
How do you like the OnAG??

GlennB

[JimsShed]

Great pictures, and I like the inclusion of captions in the 2nd image.

[Peter Ward]

A fine narrow band Eta....and ignore any comments about Eta being boring ;)

It's a treasure trove of cool objects, which, with some focal length and good seeing, are worthy and interesting targets :thumbsup:

[furgle]

Thanks everyone.


With regard to the ONAG, I love it, but it does eat up a lot of backfocus.

[Andy01]

Great result Adam, pleasing colours & well composed to focus on some lesser known areas of interest :thumbsup:

[cazza132]

Beautiful work! SHO palette works very nicely - love the colours.