We're posting two quite different versions of this nebula. The full frame tries to show the outer nebulosity which merges with the Eta Carinae nebula to the left of frame. Think of Gabriela Mistral in the kitchen, amid much steam and smoke, or in this case sulphur II.
The original image is here.. Field 36 min arc across, approx 0.55 sec arc/pixel.
The second version is a crop of the famous "face", far less pushed, so as to get a better sense of the incredibly sharp shock front in SII that forms the boundary to the OIII emission. The face and the smoke and steam are crossed by multiple fine braided dust lanes.
Note also the intriguing jagged blue "lightning flashes" seemingly emerging from the very bright star at 6 o'clock. (Think of the lightning emitted from the Emperor's fingertips as he attempted to mozzie-zap Luke Skywalker.) This feature is very real and consistent - we've photographed it before and seen it in others' work, yet I can't think of a single other instance of such a phenomenon elsewhere in the sky, or what mechanism (emperors aside) might produce it.
Original version here.
The three channels in both versions are stretched so that the overall image intensities of H-alpha (Green, 3x1hr), OIII (Blue, 3x1hr), and SII (Red, 2x1hr) are the same. We've reduced the resultant magenta in the stars, but not been too fussy about it. Taken under full moon through Astrodon 3nM filters.
Aspen CG16M on 20" PlaneWave on MI-750 fork.
Cheers,
Mike and Trish