Photographed only 21 degrees above the southern horizon in Namibia, this is a 2.5 x 2.5 degree area of the sky surrounding the Tarantula Nebula (center) in the Large Magellanic Cloud (lower right). Distance: 160 000 light years. This nebula gives rise to intense star birth, greater than any known emission nebula in the Local Group of galaxies. It has produced intense bursts of star formation over the last few tens of millions of years.
- Hodge 301 star cluster located about 150 light years away from the center of the Tarantula Nebula. Hodge 301 was formed approximately 20-25 million years ago.
- NGC 2070 open cluster located at the center of the Tarantula Nebula. The extremely massive stars it contains produce most of the ionizing radiation that illuminates the nebula.
- NGC 2060 star cluster approximately 10 million years old, discovered by John Herschel in 1836.
- N157B remnant of a supernova which occurred approximately 5000 years ago.
- SN 1987A Supernova which occurred 168,000 light-years ago. Its light reached Earth on February 23, 1987.
- NGC 2074 emission nebula with an embedded open star cluster.
Date: 18 April 2018
Locality: Tivoli Astro-farm, Khomas, Namibia, latitude: -23,5 S
Telescope: Skywatcher Esprit ED 120 mm f/7 apochromat
Mount: AP-1200 GTO
Autoguider: SkyNYX 2-2 on a Meade ETX90
Camera: Apogee U16M, CCD-temperature -17 C
Filtration: LRGB (Luminisity, Red, Green, Blue) L: 2x6min; R: 3x6min; G: 2x6min; B: 2x6min
Processing: Maxim DL (capture, stacking, stretching)