Located approx 8,500 light years away in the Carin-Sagittarius Arm of the Milky Way, The Great Carina Nebula (or just The Carina Nebula) is a large complex area of bright and dark nebulosity and is one of the largest diffuse nebula in our skies. Even though it is 4 times larger and also brighter than the Orion nebula, it is less well known due to it’s location in the lower southern skies. It was discovered in 1752 by Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille from the Cape of Good Hope.
The Carina nebula contains many other objects such as the luminous hypergiant star Eta Carinae, Homunculus Nebula, Keyhole Nebula, Defiant Finger, Mystic Mountain and star clusters Trumpler 14, 15 and 16.
RA : 10h 45m 08.5s
Dec : −59° 52′ 04″
App Mag : +1.0
Dist : 8,500 ly
Size : ~230 ly
App Size : 120 x 120 Arcmin (2°x2°)
A revisit of the widefield of the Carina Nebula, using the QHY268M camera and Antlia filters.
I liked the wide field imaging of the Carina nebula so much that I just had to do a zoomed in version using the big boy scope – and it has exceeded all of my hopes !
I thought it was time to break out the wider field imaging gear and get the ED80 back into action on the CEM60 mount.