03 Feb 2026
The Eta Carinae Nebula (NGC 3372) is a is a large, complex area of bright and dark nebulosity in the constellation Carina. It is located in the Carina–Sagittarius Arm of the Milky Way galaxy.
The bright star at the center of the image is Eta Carinae. It is a system of at least two stars, the largest of which (Eta Carinae A) is around 100 times as massive as the Sun and 5 million times as luminous. Eta Carinae may be about to explode. But no one knows when - it may be next year, it may be one million years from now. It is an excellent candidate for a supernova. (NASA Science)
This object is only visible in the southern hemisphere.
Image processed by Andrew Macica, original data from Telescope Live.
Imaging Details:
Observatory: Rio Hurtado Valley, Chile
Telescope: Planewave CDK24
Aperture: 610 mm (24 inches), f/6.5
Focal Length: 3962 mm
Camera: FLI PL 9000 CCD
Filters: LRGB
Total Exposure: 6 hours 8 min.
Image Processing: PixInsight 1.8.9-3 Ripley (x64);
BlurXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, StarXTerminator (RC Astro);
Adobe Photoshop 25.12.1;
Adobe Lightroom Classic 14.2
Instruction on PixInsight from Adam Block Studios.
NGC 3372
11 credit
Filter | Avg Exp (s) | Total Exposure | Subframes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Luminance | 18 | 12m | 40 |
| Halpha | 585 | 6h30m | 40 |
| Red | 293 | 3h15m | 40 |
| Green | 293 | 3h15m | 40 |
| Blue | 210 | 2h20m | 40 |