Eta Carina: Into Darkness

[matlud (Mathew)]

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/...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 (Mathew)]

Originally Posted by 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.

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 (Rob)]

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

[JA]

Well done Matt - Wonderful image

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.

[matlud (Mathew)]

Originally Posted by xrekcor

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

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

Originally Posted by JA

Well done Matt - Wonderful image

Best
JA

Thanks JA!

Originally Posted by 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.

Cheers Peter, much appreciated 👍

[Tony Leece]

I love every aspect of this image, inspiring work mate

[matlud (Mathew)]

Originally Posted by Tony Leece

I love every aspect of this image, inspiring work mate

Cheers Tony

[Nikolas (Nik)]

Love the muted stars in this image and the colour palette

[Addos (Adam)]

very nicely done in both capture and processing!

[Retrograde (Pete)]

Excellent rendition Mat!

[multiweb (Marc)]

+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.

[John K]

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

John K.

[matlud (Mathew)]

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