Both nebulae, situated in Carina, near the Eta Carinae Nebula, are very active star-forming regions and emit strongly in the light of ionized hydrogen (H-Alpha).  They are 7.000 and 14.000 light years away respectively.  NGC 3576 with its characteristic loops formed by stellar winds also contains a number of prominent Bok Globules, dark dense stellar nurseries.  NGC 3603 may well be the largest nebula in our galaxy and features concentrations of young, hot and massive Wolf-Rayet stars, much like at the center of the Tarantula Nebula (NGC 2070).

Image info

Telescope:  Orion 80ED apochromatic refractor at f/7.5

Focus:  Prime focus

Filter:  Astronomik Hydrogen Alpha 13nm FWHM, Astronomik RGB Filters

Mount:  Vixen GPD with Skysensor2000

Camera:  Artemis 285 CCD camera

Guiding:  700mm refractor guidescope, SAC7 camera, autoguided with Guidedog software

Exposure:  H-alpha 70 mins (10 x 420s), RGB  50, 45, 35 mins,

Date:  8th & 20th Feb 2006

Processing:  Offset and flat fielding, registering and stacking done in IRIS.  No dark frames.  Curve stretching and Levels in Photoshop CS2.  Luminance image was a blend of H-alpha and Red.  LRGB composite in Photoshop, with the R channel the same as the luminance channel.  Noise reduction in Neat Image.

Comments

First light with the Astronomik RGB filters.