Michael Purcell's Astrophotography

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Eta Carinae and the Keyhole Nebula

(Click on the picture above to go to the main image.)

The Keyhole Nebula (also called the "Eta Carinae Nebula") is one of the jewels of the southern sky.

To quote the Deep Sky Field Guide to the Uranometria 2000:

"Very bright and beyond description, surpassing even the Great Orion Nebula."

And from Burnham's Celestial Handbook:

Sir John Hirschel found words inadequate "to convey a full impression of the beauty and sublimity of the spectacle offered by this nebula, when viewed in a sweep, ushered in as it is by a glorious and innumerable procession of stars, to which it forms a sort of climax."

This image shows the center of the nebula, with the star Eta Carinae being the very bright object near the center. Eta Carinae itself is surrounded by shells of nebulousity, which is why it does not look "star-like" in the image.

I took this picture at Grove Creek Observatory.

Constellation	Carina
Right Asc (hh:mm:ss)	10:43:48
Declination(deg:sec)	-59:52
Magnitude
Size (ArcMin)	120
Tirion SkyAtlas 2000	#25
Uranometria 2000	#427

CCD Camera Parameters

ST-7 Compressed Image
File_version = 3
Data_version = 1
Exposure = 5.5 minutes
Focal length = 97.959
Aperture = 141.3700
Response_factor = 2000.000
Note = Image taken 04/28/98 at 19:12:18
Background = 0
Range = 4840
Height = 506
Width = 751
Date = 04/28/98
Time = 19:12:18
Exposure_state = 356
Temperature = -14.81
Number_exposures = 11
Each_exposure = 30 seconds
History = RA
Observer =Michael Purcell; C-14@f/7
X_pixel_size = 0.0090
Y_pixel_size = 0.0090
Pedestal = 1112
E_gain = 2.30
User_1 = CCDOPS for DOS Version 3.76
Filter = None
Readout_mode = 0
Track_time = 0
Sat_level = 65535

This page last updated on September 5, 1998 Contact Michael Purcell