Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Carina (Car)  ·  Contains:  NGC 3199
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NGC3199 - The Banana Nebula, John Dziuba
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NGC3199 - The Banana Nebula

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NGC3199 - The Banana Nebula, John Dziuba
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NGC3199 - The Banana Nebula

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Description

NGC3199, commonly known as the Banana nebula, lies roughly 12,000 light years away from us in the southern constellation Carina.   At its center lies an especially hot and luminous Wolf-Rayet star WR18.  Wolf-Rayet stars are massive, hot, short-lived stars that generate an intense and complex stellar wind.  This often leads to interestingly shaped neublae around them as is the case here. 

Originally the brighter side was thought to be a bow shock as the star quickly moved through space.  But studies have shown that the star is not moving fast enough to cause this and the likely cause is simply that there is more interstellar material to ionize on that side of the star.

There are not many award winning images on Astrobin for this object, and only a single top pick.  A challenge!  In addition to the 44 hour integration time, I spent a lot of effort on the fine filamentary structures while controlling the dynamic range of the bright area on order to try to make this a compelling image.  I opted for a more natural dynamic pallet vs a straight up SHO.  But, I left an SHO version in the revisons for comparison.

Thanks for checking it out.

JD

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Revisions

    NGC3199 - The Banana Nebula, John Dziuba
    Original
    NGC3199 - The Banana Nebula, John Dziuba
    D
  • Final
    NGC3199 - The Banana Nebula, John Dziuba
    F
    NGC3199 - The Banana Nebula, John Dziuba
    H
    NGC3199 - The Banana Nebula, John Dziuba
    I

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NGC3199 - The Banana Nebula, John Dziuba