Southern Sky Gems Observatory, Tivoli AstroFram, Kalahari Desert, Namibia

Total Exposure Time: 15.5 hours Bin1:Ha 60 x 10 min.; Bin1:RGB 12,10,11 x 10 min. each
This image is 1900x1169 pixels covering 14.5'x9' of sky

Officina Stellare RiDK 305 F7.9 OTA
SBIG STF8300M, AP GTO1200 mount, guided w/MaximDL
RA 10h 43m 19.4s, Dec -59° 29' 52.4"
Pos Angle +90° 22.9', FL 2400 mm, 0.46"/Pixel

Processed with PixInSight using IP4AP methodologies (www.ip4ap.com)

A jewel of the southern sky, the Great Carina Nebula, also known as NGC 3372, spans over 300 light-years, one of our galaxy's largest star forming (HII) regions.
Like the smaller, more northerly famous Great Orion Nebula, the Carina Nebula is easily visible to the unaided eye, though at a distance of 7,500 light-years
it is some 5 times farther away. Although it is some four times as large and even brighter than the Orion Nebula, the Carina Nebula is much less well known,
due to its location in the southern sky. It was discovered by Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in 1751–52 from the Cape of Good Hope (ref. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eta_Carinae_Nebula)

This colorful skyscape provides a closeup view of some of the more interesting dusty areas of the nebula, which are frequently overlooked due to the nearby Eta Carinae
(a bright star on the verge of a supernova explosion) and the dusty Keyhole Nebula (NGC 3324).

This image is released here under the the free lisence: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)