Designation |
NGC 2070, Tarantula Nebula,
30
Dor, Bennett 35 |
Object type |
Emission nebulae, open
clusters |
Coordinates |
05 h 39 min -
69° 06' Dorado (Dor) |
Description |
If this nebula were at the
location of the Orion Nebula (M42), it would fill the whole constellation and cast a
shadow ! It is the only extra-galactic nebula that can be seen with the
unaided eye as a faint patch of light on the eastern end of the Large
Magellanic cloud (LMC), 160.000 light years distant. The "body"
of the spider contains a very dense concentration of extremely hot giant
stars that excite the hydrogen gas around. By narrowband imaging one
can accentuate many sprawling wispy filaments of gas, compact emission
nebula, nearly spherical supernova remnants and areas surrounding hot
stars known as superbubbles.
This rich extragalactic scenery covers a field of view of 75 x 52
arcminutes or approximately an area on the sky the size of four full moons.
Click here or on the
image for a higher resolution version. There is also a full color
rendering.
Earlier images of the Tarantula taken with a 10"
Maksutov-Newton telescope and a 14.5"
Ritchey-Chrétien.
|
Exposure |
Ha 360 min @
-20°C,
all unbinned |
Camera |
SBIG STL-11000 CCD camera with
Astronomik Ha filter, selfguided |
Optics |
TEC APO 200FL refractor with TEC
field flattener @ f/8
(prime focus) |
Mount |
Astro-Physics AP1200GTO |
Software |
MaxIm DL/CCD, CCDStack, Adobe
Photoshop CS |
Location - Date - Time |
San Esteban (Chile) -
20-22Nov2006 @ 04:00
UTC |
Conditions |
Transparency 6, Seeing 6-7, Temperature
+14°C |