A jewel of the southern sky, the Great Carina Nebula, aka NGC 3372, spans over 300 light-years. Near the upper right of this expansive skyscape, it is much larger than the more northerly Orion Nebula. In fact, the Carina Nebula is one of our galaxy's largest star-forming regions and home to young, extremely massive stars, including the still enigmatic variable Eta Carinae, a star with well over 100 times the mass of the Sun. Nebulae near the center of the 12 degree wide field include NGC 3576 and NGC 3603. Near center at the top of the frame is open star cluster NGC 3532, the Firefly Pary Cluster. More compact, NGC 3766, the Pearl Cluster, can be spotted at the left. Anchoring the lower left of the cosmic canvas is another large star-forming region, IC 2948/2944 with embedded star cluster Collinder 249. That region is popularly known as the Running Chicken Nebula. (text adapted from APOD). 24 hours of total exposures went into this 4 panels mosaic covering about 140 square degrees of sky. Pentax 67 EDIF 300mm f/4 - FLI Proline 16803 - Ha (480m) OIII (480) R (160m) G (160m) B (160m) - Warrumbungle Observatory, Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia
Pentax 67 EDIF 300mm f/4 - FLI Proline 16803 - Ha (90m) L (110m) R (40m) G (40m) B (40m) - Warrumbungle Observatory, Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia
This image of the sky around bright stars Antares (Alpha Scorpii) and Rho Ophiuchi (oh'-fee-yu-kee) reveals spectacular colors in a cosmic starscape. Near the top, blue light from the star Rho Ophiuchi and nearby stars reflects more efficiently off this portion of the nebula than red light. The Earth's daytime sky appears blue for the same reason. Cool supergiant star Antares (near the center) is itself shedding the material that reflects the evolved star's yellowish hue. The red regions shine primarily because of emission from the nebula's atomic and molecular gas. Light from nearby blue stars - more energetic than the bright star Antares - knocks electrons away from the gas, which then shines when the electrons recombine with the gas. The dark regions are caused by dust grains - born in young stellar atmospheres - which effectively block light emitted behind them. About 500 light-years away, the Rho Ophiuchi star clouds, are well in front of the nearby globular star cluster M4, visible just below and right of center (text adapted from APOD). Pentax SDHF75+RC0.72x35 - SBIG STL11K - L (60m) RGB (20m each) - Meeline Station, Mt. Magnet, Western Australia
