NGC 3324

CLUSTER ASSOCIATED WITH NEBULOSITY IN CARINA

 (ra: 10.37,3/ dec -58:38)

April 12th 2009, Home Backyard in Martinez Buenos Aires, Argentina

DATA

TYPE: Cluster associated with Nebulosity

Apparent Magnitude: 6.7

Apparent Diameter: 16 arc minutes

DISTANCE: 7000 lights years

IMAGE INFORMATION

SCOPE: Celestron C8 SCT working at f6 (roughly)

CAMERA: SXVF H9

GUIDING: William Optics Zenithstar 66 with WO 0.8 x fr/ff

IMAGE ACQUISITION: AstroArt 3.0 - Control Interface 3.72 plug in

FILTERS: Astronomik Type II - Astronomik Ha 6 nm - Atik Filter Wheel

SKY CONDITIONS: magnitude 4 skies - transparency and seeing regular

EXPOSURES: LHaRGB (24,24,12,12,12)

PROCESSING: Maxim SD Mask, Images Plus, CCD Sharp, Photoshop CS2, NASA Fits Liberator

OBJECT DESCRIPTION AND IMAGE SESSION

Near the Norwest edge of Eta Carina Nebula we should see this interesting star forming region called NGC 3324. This glowing nebula has been carved by intense ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds from several hot and young stars. The high-energy radiation is sculpting the wall of the nebula by slowly eroding it away, this process is somehow visible in the image. There are also visible dark towers of cool gas and dust along the edge of the wall. it call my attention the brightest star of the image V370 Carinae (Magnitude range 5.45 - 5,52), a nebula structure very close to it

The shot was done while looking for a mount flexure, so the subs where only 120 seconds. The luminance channel was with the IR filter instead of the IDAS LPS. More sub exposure time, will result in chip saturation.

(*) Source Hubble Heritage Project