NGC 2979 & Tarantula Nebula (Version 2 data collection)

--Downsampled from 19,000KB image for publication--

OTA: TAO 150 (f/7.3)

Camera: FLI - ML16200 (1.13 arcseconds/pixel)

Observatory: Deep Sky West, Chile

EXPOSURES:

Red 15 x 600 sec.

Blue 19 x 600

Green 21 x 600

Lum 14 x 600

SII 20 x 900

Ha 23 x 900

OIII 19 x 900

Total exposure ~26.3 hours

Image Width: ~1.3 deg

Processed by Alex Woronow (2019) using PixInsight, Matlab, Topaz, SWT

NGC 2070, an open cluster, and the surrounding ‘Tarantula Nebula’ do not lie in our Milky Way Galaxy, but in our neighboring galaxy, the ‘Large Magellanic Cloud,’ (LMC) at a distance of almost 160,000 light-years. The super-cluster, NGC 2070, which you can clearly see at the center of the Tarantula Nebula (the white grouping of stars) provides most of the energy that illuminates this very large cloud. At the center of the star cluster, the condensation (tight grouping) of stars, named R136, is one of the most energetic star clusters known and contains the most massive star known: R136a1, which is 8.7 million times more luminous than our sun. The cluster’s total mass is about 450,000 solar masses, and it will likely become a globular cluster in the distant future.

With the energy of R136a1, and many other giant stars in NGC 2070, the Tarantula nebula, despite its great distance, shines at magnitude 8. If it were as close as the Great Nebula in Orion, it would cast shadows at night! (Well, if you lived in NY City, no shadows.)

The grainy background in the image (e.g., in the upper left) results from the plethora of stars in the LMC. In addition to the star cluster described above, this image captures several other clusters and nebulae.

(The colors assigned to the narrowband images correspond to their actual RGB colors. The image was photometrically color calibrated. However some adjustments to the nebulae displace there colors a moderate amount from their calibration colors.)