Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Dorado (Dor)  ·  Contains:  30 Dor Cluster  ·  NGC 2042  ·  NGC 2044  ·  NGC 2060  ·  NGC 2069  ·  NGC 2070  ·  Tarantula Nebula
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The Tarantula Nebula, Niall MacNeill
The Tarantula Nebula, Niall MacNeill

The Tarantula Nebula

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The Tarantula Nebula, Niall MacNeill
The Tarantula Nebula, Niall MacNeill

The Tarantula Nebula

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Description

This is the magnificent Tarantula Nebula, which lies in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) at a distance of 160,000 light years. At its centre lies the star cluster NGC 2070. It is an extremely luminous object and it is said that at the distance of The Great Nebula in Orion M42 (1500 ly) it would cast shadows at night here on Earth. It is in fact the most active star burst region in the local group of galaxies. There are many young, hot stars in this region fusing their hydrogen fuel with profligacy, such that they live short lives of a few million years before exploding as supernovae.

You may recall that in 1987 a supernova (SN1987A) occurred in the LMC and its location is just outside the field of view to the upper right in the image. There is a star cluster NGC 2060, close in and to the upper right of the NGC 2070 at about 2 o’clock. It is central to another supernova remnant which can be seen spreading out in an arc from the cluster and is thought to have exploded 5000 years ago as seen from the Earth. Clearly it actually occurred some 160,000 years earlier.

Capture details:

OTA: C14 Edge HD

Camera: SBIG 16803

Filters: Astronomik LRGB & Ha

32 x 600 sec Luminance (5.3 hrs)

18 x 600 sec Red (3 hrs)

18 x 600 sec Green (3 hrs)

15 x 600 sec Blue (2.5 hrs)

13 x 1800 sec Ha (6.5 hrs)

Total LRGB 13.8 hrs

Total HaLRGB 20.3 hrs

35 Bias,

35 Dark

35 Flats per channel

From these data I produced an LRGB image and an HaLRGB image, using the NBRGBCombination Script in PixInsight. For the final HaLRGB image, I blended the LRGB image 80:20 with the Ha image that you can see with the mouseover. This produced enhanced red Ha detail, without overpowering the lovely teal blue-green coming from the OIII emission line, although there is no OIII NB in this image.

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    The Tarantula Nebula, Niall MacNeill
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B

Description: Ha image with LRGB background

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The Tarantula Nebula, Niall MacNeill