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      Eta Carinae Nebula (NGC 3372)
      Wallpaper author:
      Andrew Macica

      03 Feb 2026

      Eta Carinae Nebula (NGC 3372)

      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.

      Dataset from which the image was processed

      NGC 3372

      11 credit

      Open
      Telescope Live
      CHI-1-CCD
      • Type of target
        ............................................................................................................................
        Emission Nebula
      • Camera
        ............................................................................................................................
        FLI ProLine PL9000
      • Target coordinates
        ............................................................................................................................
        RA 161.0792 Dec -59.88917
      • Hemisphere
        ............................................................................................................................
        Southern
      • Telescope location
        ............................................................................................................................
        Chile
      • Transient event
        ............................................................................................................................
        No
      • Observed on
        ............................................................................................................................
        18 Feb 2020 - 27 May 2021
      Filter
      Avg Exp (s)
      Total Exposure
      Subframes
      Luminance1812m40
      Halpha5856h30m40
      Red2933h15m40
      Green2933h15m40
      Blue2102h20m40

      Eta Carinae Nebula (NGC 3372)