Telescope : Planewave CDK 17 F6.8
Camera : SBIG STXL 11002
Mount: Software Bisque Paramount ME
Pixel scale : 0.63 arcsec/pixel
FOV : 42 x 29 arcmins
Filters :LRGB & SHO
Integration: 39h25m
Sii 17x30m & 4x20m Ha 22x20m Oiii 19x30m
L 10x15m R 12x15m G 17x15m B 12x15m
RA center: 10h 37′ 17″
DEC center: -58° 38′ 12″
Equipment : Martin Pugh
Location : El Sauce Chile
Software: PixInsight & Photoshop
NGC 3324, The Gabriela Mistral Nebula is named after a Nobel Prize winning Chilean poet as her profile eerily matches the face profile seen in the nebula. Spanning about 35 light years, this bright cosmic cloud was sculpted by stellar winds and radiation from the hot young stars of open cluster NGC 3324. It lies some 7,000 light-years away towards the Eta Carina constellation and with dust clouds in silhouette against its glowing atomic gas, the bright emissions create an image of a human face in profile. This narrow band filter image captures the emission lines from sulfur, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms mapped to red, green, and blue color in what is also known as the Hubble Palette. Stars were shot in red, green and blue and were later replaced in post processing.