NGC3372/Eta Car Nebula

The Great Nebula in Carina

Image copyright: Zander Horn

This image of NGC 3372 in Carina was taken by Xander Horn in February 2015, at the Southern Star Party in the Western Cape.  This nebula is brighter than the great nebula in Orion, and about four times bigger.  It contains several open star clusters, and a hypergiant star named Eta Carina (shared by the nebula as its more common name).  It is an active star forming region, and is one of the gems of the southern skies.

The photo was taken using a Canon 5D Mark III on a Meade RCX400 14" scope setup in equatorial mode. 60 unguided exposures at 60 seconds each at ISO 3200, though due to the wind only about 6 shots were usable. Photos stacked in DeepSkyStacker using 40 dark and bias frames with the application recommended settings. Stacked output was edited in Adobe Camera Raw to get a reasonable JPEG output