Eta Carina: Into Darkness

[matlud]

Hi everyone,

After what feels like a summer of cloudy nights, its nice to finish a new image! I set up this APM scope last year and have been using it on a few longer term projects that I will hopefully finish this year and decided it was time to do some fine-tuning of the setup. So Eta Carina was selected as the target, and it was a nice change to be able to actually see some nebulosity on single subs compared to what I have been imaging. Eta Carina reminds me of the misaligned warp core seen in Star Trek: Into Darkness, and you can imagine the massive amount of energy being pumped out that has sculpted all of the dust and molecular clouds in the area. I tried a few different framing options and settled on a crop to 1.65 x 1.35 degrees of the main core. I also took some 5 second exposures of the homunculus to not blow this out completely.

https://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=288396&stc=1&d=1648154393
Astrobin: https://www.astrobin.com/tid944/0/

Cheers,
Mat

Technical:
APM 123/738
ASI6200MM Pro
Chroma SHO 5nm
10Micron GM1000HPS mount
Exposure 7.7 hours
Location: Dunedin, NZ

[gregbradley]

That's really nice Matt. Look at those tiny stars. The APM is performing wonderfully.

I like the colour scheme as well. Good contrast and colour saturation.

Greg.

[matlud]

Thanks Greg! I have been using the Nikon 200mm a lot last year, and while it has many strengths, stars are not one of them 😂 so I was pretty chuffed at the stars from the APM. Glad you liked the palette -I played around this with this a fair bit before settling on this one.

Cheers,
Mat

[xrekcor]

Nice result there all the same. One of my fav area for visual observations.

[JA]

Well done Matt - Wonderful image:thumbsup:

Best
JA

[Peter Ward]

An excellent Eta Carina. The ultra tight stars are a delightful hallmark
of the excellent APM optics. Adding some RGB stars will take it
to the next level.

Nice one. :thumbsup:

[matlud]

Thanks Rob! Its an action packed field for sure, so many hidden corners 👍



Thanks JA!



Cheers Peter, much appreciated 👍

[Tony Leece]

I love every aspect of this image, inspiring work mate :cool::cool:

[matlud]

Cheers Tony :thumbsup:

[Nikolas]

Love the muted stars in this image and the colour palette

[Addos]

very nicely done in both capture and processing!

[Retrograde]

Excellent rendition Mat!

[multiweb]

+1 This is a an awesome shot and the highres is a delight to peruse around. Such a beautiful widefield yet with details teasing the limit of what you get at the next level at long FL. Superb. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[John K]

+1 on a really nice interpretation of this well imaged object.

John K.

[matlud]

Thanks Nik, Adam, Pete, Marc and John appreciate the kind feedback. Cheers, Mat