This emission nebula is large at around 2 degrees across, so four times larger than the Orion Nebula, in the southern constellation of Carina the Keel. It is around 8,500 lightyears distant and is associated with the massive stars Eta Carina and WR 25. The latter is the most luminous star known in our galaxy.
The image on the left was taken through LRGBHa filters, while that on the right is in the Hubble colour palette. Here, sulphur-II (672nm) is mapped to red, hydrogen-alpha (656nm) to green and oxygen-III (496nm) to blue.
These images are the result of 2.5h of data capture, remotely imaged from New South Wales in December 2020 and January 2021. A Televue 127mm refractor and FLI Proline 16803 CCD camera were used.
Date: 16/01/2021
Photographer: Graham Wilcock
