Carina Nebula, 21×3 min, ISO 800

To describe the Namibian sky, through the eyes of a European blinded by light pollution, I don’t dare. Nothing in Europe compares to that excellent dark sky, no matter how I try to get away from light pollution. The Milky Way and the sky as a whole show an inhuman beauty.

This is one of the first pictures I took in Namibia. I used a modded Canon 1100D, a Canon 200mm F/2.8lens at 4.5. Took 21×3 min ISO 800 with a HEQ5 PRO mount.

This is the short, English version of this article in Romanian.

The Carina Nebula (NGC 3372) is a complex area of the sky with many ionized gas and dark dust lanes. It is located in the Carina–Sagittarius Arm of the Milky Way at about 6500-10000 light years. Many of the bright stars in the nebula are the most luminous known to date. One is the peculiar η (eta) Carianae which is expected to go supernova in the near future. The Sun compared to eta Carinae is like the Moon compared to the Sun: the star shines 4 million times brighter than the Sun.

In the upper right corner there is the NGC 3324 cluster in dense gas and the bright NGC 3293 open cluster towards the edge of the frame.

To the left we see the NGC 3532 open cluster which is much closer, at about 1300 light years, thus it is not associated with the nebula complex. By the way, it is the first object Hubble imaged back in 1990.

raw sample

processed in a hurry to see what it is like

stack of 21x

looking for the light

stage

stage

stage

final image: Carina Nebula, 21×3 min, ISO 800