Eta Carina Nebula (NGC 3372; Caldwell 92)
Eta Carina Nebula (also known as NGC 3372, Caldwell 92) is a diffuse nebula in the constellation Carina. It has an apparent visual magnitude of 6.2 and its angular diameter is 120x120 arc-minutes. NGC 3372 lies at an estimated distance of 7500 light years. The Equinox 2000 coordinates are 10h 43.8m, -59° 52´ which makes NGC 3372 a Southern Hemisphere object that is best seen during the spring. The Caldwell Spring Star Chart shows the position of all Caldwell objects visible during that season. Visit the Caldwell Catalog Photo Gallery to see more objects from this catalog. As one of the more famous objects in the Caldwell Catalog, it is commonly known as the Eta Carinae Nebula.
Eta Carinae, the star at the center of the nebula is a stellar system containing at least two stars. The brighter component is a Luminous Blue Variable (LBV), which originally had a mass of around 150 solar masses, but is now about 120 solar masses. A hot supergiant of approximately 30 solar masses is believed to exist in orbit around the larger star. However, the thick red nebula surrounding Eta Carinae makes it impossible to see the system optically. Its combined luminosity is about five million times greater than the Sun. Because of its mass and late stage of life, Eta Carinae is expected to explode in a supernova in the astronomically near future. See Wikipedia for more details.
The image above was shot through narrow band filters (Sulphur II + H-Alpha + Oxygen III) and displayed in the Hubble palette (SHO). The Hubble palette maps the glow of the nebula's sulfur, hydrogen, and oxygen ions into red, green, and blue colors.
Visit NGC3372-Ha to see this region imaged with the same telescope in Hydroden Alpha.
Technical Details
- Object: Eta Carina Nebula (SHO - Sulphur II + H-Alpha + Oxygen III)
- Other Names: NGC 3372, Caldwell 92
- Object Type: diffuse nebula
- Object Data: Apparent Magnitude = 6.2, Angular Size = 120x120 arc-minutes
- Object Position (Equinox 2000): 10h 43.8m, -59° 52´, Constellation = Carina
- Date: 2021 Jan 19-25 - (Ha); 2021 Apr 18-23 (OIII & SII)
- Location: Chile Remote Observatory, Observatorio El Sauce, Chile
- Partnership: Operated in partnership with David Churchill
- Telescope: Astro-Physics AP155 EDF Refractor Telescope (with Focal Reducer: f/5.4; FL = 836mm)
- Camera: FLI Proline 29050 / CFW2-7
- Mount: Astro-Physics 1600GTO
- Guider: Agena Starguide II / SBIG STi
- Sub-Exposures: Astrodon Filters
- H-Alpha (5nm): 97 x 10 min = 970 min = 16.17 hr
- Sulphur II (5nm): 52 x 10 min = 520 min = 8.67 hr
- Oxygen III (5nm): 56 x 10 min = 560 min = 9.33 hr - Total Exposure: 34h 10m
- File Name: NGC3372-EDF21-C04w.jpg
- Field of View: 83.0' x 124.3' at 1.36 arc-sec/pixel
- Original Image Size: 4408 x 6600 pixels (29.1 MP); 14.7" x 22.0" @ 300 dpi
- Data Acquisition: David Churchill
- Image Processing: Fred Espenak
- Maxim DL: Image Calibration, Stacking, Digital Development Processing
- Adobe Camera Raw: Noise Reduction
- Photoshop CC: Curves, Levels
- Topaz Labs: Sharpen AI - Copyright: Fred Espenak
