Eta Carinae, also known as the Keyhole Nebula, was first discovered by Halley in 1677. At that time, it was recorded by astronomers as a 4th magnitude star. Over the years, it varied irregularly. Eta Carinae reached a maximum in April 1843, at which time it was the brightest star in the sky with the sole exception of Sirius. It is a super massive blue star; so massive it is unstable. The star has ejected vast clouds of gas forming a nebula surrounding the star. Eta Carinae is located in one of the most splendid areas of the sky in the Southern Milky Way. It is not visible from most Northern Latitudes.
While traveling in Hawaii on vacation, I had an opportunity to do some observing from the visitors' center at Mauna Kea Observatory on the large island of Hawaii. At a latitude slightly less than 20 degrees North, this vantage point gave me a view of many objects in the Southern Milky Way. Located at an altitude of 9300 feet, the seeing was excellent. All I had with me was a 3-inch refractor, but the image turned out okay for such a small instrument. I would like to express special thanks to Hugh Grossman and the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy for allowing me to use their facilities to set up my telescope for astrophotography. While in Hawaii, I attended a star party held at the visitors' center and had the opportunity to look through their Meade 16-inch LX-200 telescope. The views were awesome! I highly recommend visiting the Mauna Kea Observatory visitors' center to anyone who is vacationing in Hawaii. Hugh sponsors regular public star-gazing events for visitors (at the time I was there the star parties were on Thursday through Sunday nights). Additional information may be obtained from their home page, or by contacting Hugh Grossman.
This is a composite CCD image taken with an ST-8 CCD. The image was taken with a Takahashi FS-78 refractor telescope on an EM-10 mount, guided by the built in ST-8 autoguider. The image was acquired using MaxIm DL/CCD and processed using MaxIm DL and PhotoShop.
NGC 3372
Constellation: Carina
RA: 10h 43m 50.0s Dec: -59d 52' 00"
(J2000)
December 22, 1998
Image by Sid Leach
Mauna Kea, Hawaii
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