The Carina Nebula

Hello!

This is a two panel mosaic of the Carina nebula, captured with my zwo asi533mc pro camera, and a redcat 51. The contrast was low and the background is a nice matte gray due to the near full moon when I captured this beast of a nebula. But I kind of like the soft palette and flowy nature of the image.

Here are some interesting facts I wanted to share!

The Carina nebula is 4x larger in the night sky compared to the Orion Nebula, and much brighter. It also contains the brightest observed star (Eta Car A) in the galaxy with a luminosity of 5 million suns.

This nebula is known as an diffuse nebula. This is because there is no clear boundary on where they end, and is a massive cloud of dust and gas. This nebula is also an emission nebula. Emission nebulas release their own light from ionized gases, the ionization is caused by intense ultraviolet radiation released by the stars within.

The fact that it is an emission nebula plays an important role in imaging. Ionized gases release very specific wavelengths of light. For instance, hydrogen alpha (Ha) releases a wavelength of light that is red (656.28nm wavelength), and oxygen III (OIII) releases a blu-ish cyan colour (500.7nm wavelength). So by using special filters, we can isolate these wavelengths to only allow a certain band of light surrounding the emission lines through. So for my case, I used a Optolong L-Extreme which allows Ha and OIII in, while blocking most other wavelengths. This allows for better contrast, and also blocks out a significant portion of light pollution.

Anyways, I hope you all enjoy the image as much as I have enjoyed capturing it!