Carina Nebula / NGC3372 - A bright star nursery from the mighty dark sky of Chile (Anil Monnier)

Carina Nebula / NGC3372 - A bright star nursery from the mighty dark sky of Chile

Revision title: The Carina Nebula (NGC3372) from world-famous observatories in Chile

-Creating this picture was a really long and challenging project, as this Nebula is only visible in the Southern Hemisphere. I had the opportunity to create this picture during my exchange in Chile, under the overwhelming and prehistoric night sky of the Atacama Desert.

-I had for goal: “different imaging location for each filter/channel” and I got very spoiled. The Hydrogen Alpha and Red filter were used on the amazing El Sauce Observatory site. Big thank you to Obstech for letting me spend two nights there! The Green channel was gathered on La Silla Observatory’s airstrip, and finally, the Blue one was taken on the Observatorio del Pangue site. Just next to where Gemini South, SOAR, Vera C. Rubin, and Tololo Inter-American Observatories operate. It’s not for nothing that these world-renowned observatories were built there. Thanks to a fortunate meteorological phenomenon, and the absence of humidity in the air, the sky is all year long incredibly clear there. More importantly, these locations don’t suffer from any light pollution. All of this makes it more than perfect for taking pictures of stars. It was truly dark out there. Really seeing how obscure space can be in contrast with the unbelievable Milky Way brightness. Really made us realize the beauty of our night sky and how much light pollution can cover all of this… we should start really thinking about how to preserve this view of the world.

-Talking about the picture, this is the Carina Nebula, one of the largest and brightest nebulae in the sky. This cloud is located about 9,000 light-years away, spans about 100 light-years, and is four times larger than the famous Orion Nebula and far brighter. One of the most impressive stars known, Eta Carinae, is found in the center of the nebula. It is one of the most massive stars in our Milky Way, containing over 100 times the mass of the Sun. Eta Carinae shines about four million times brighter than the Sun, making it the most luminous star on record. Eta Carinae is highly unstable and prone to violent outbursts, most notably a “false” supernova event that occurred in 1843. For a few years, Eta Carinae became the second-brightest star in the night sky and produced almost as much visible light as a supernova explosion, yet it survived these stellar pyrotechnics.

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Final
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Title: The Carina Nebula (NGC3372) from world-famous observatories in Chile

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	6500873
PixInsight job	NP46DOO0LW8EB472UURZ3AWCFOFCH8R7
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	10h43m03s.43
RA (top/left)	10h34m15s.30
RA (top/right)	10h30m18s.71
RA (bottom/right)	10h52m58s.81
RA (bottom/left)	10h54m30s.57

Dec (center)	-59°52′26″.1
Dec (top/left)	-57°49′18″.7
Dec (top/right)	-61°37′09″.1
Dec (bottom/right)	-61°52′53″.7
Dec (bottom/left)	-58°03′02″.3

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