NGC 3372,"The Carina Nebula" aka "The Great Nebula in Carina" and the "Keyhole Nebula" portion of this complex emission, reflection and dark nebula.

NGC 3372 The Keyhole Nebula

NGC 3372,"The Carina Nebula" aka "The Great Nebula in Carina" and the "Keyhole Nebula" portion of this complex emission, reflection and dark nebula.
NGC 3372,”The Carina Nebula” aka “The Great Nebula in Carina” and the “Keyhole Nebula” portion of this complex emission, reflection and dark nebula.

Hi,

The constellation Carina alone makes it worthwhile travelling to Southern Africa – and the Carina Nebula NGC 3372 is the heart of it – especially for visual observing. NGC 3372 is studded with bright and even dark nebulae. The most impressive to me is a combination of “light & shadow” – the Keyhole Nebula (the famous “eta carina” is the bright star at lower left).

Data:
Object Name: Keyhole Nebula (in NGC 3372)
Object type: Galactic Nebula
Location: Hakos Guestfarm, Namib Naukluft, Namibia
Date: June 1st & 2nd, 2014 (about 3 hours total of sketching)
Media: Pastel and graphite pencils
Optics: 24” Dobson f 4.0, 300x
No filter

Additional aspects:
Field is about 12 x 15’ wide, north is up. To concentrate on object (and not on dimensions) I used a pattern of stars printed from Guide 9 as a template. Pinpoint stars added by image processing software (to replace printed and sketched stars)

More sketches:

http://www.astrosketching.com

Clear Skies!
Rainer

2 thoughts on “NGC 3372 The Keyhole Nebula”

  1. Rainer,

    Absolutely stunning rendition of Eta Carina Nebula. So dramatic and well captured.
    Thank you for sharing your 24″ view!

    Cindy

  2. Rainer,

    I am too far north to see ”The Carina Nebula” but I do like your sketch of it.

    Frank 🙂

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