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)

Date: 21 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: 4x6min; R: 4x6min; G: 4x6min; B: 4x6min

Processing: Maxim DL (capture, stacking, stretching), PhotoShop (color balance)

Date: 20 April 2018, Tivoli Astro-farm, Khomas, Namibia

Telescope: Skywatcher Esprit ED 120 mm f/7 apochromat, mount: AP-1200 GTO, camera: Apogee U16M, CCD-temperature -17 C, LRGB, L: 8x6min; R: 8x6min; G: 8x6min; B: 8x6min, CCD-temp = -17 C.

Date: 20 April 2018

Locality: Tivoli Astro-farm, Khomas, Namibia, latitude: -23,5 grader

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 L: 8x6min; R: 8x6min; G: 8x6min; B: 8x6min

Processing: Maxim DL (capture, stacking, stretching), PhotoShop (color ballance)

The rainy season has finally ended here in Khomas, Namibia. This provided an opportunity to complete the RGB sub-exposures of the Eta Carinae Nebula.

Date: 18-19 April 2018

Locality: Tivoli Astro-farm, Khomas, Namibia, latitude: -23,5 grader

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

Filters: Chroma Technology Corp

Filtration: RGB R: 6x6min; G: 6x6min; B: 6x6min

Processing: Maxim DL (capture, stacking, stretching), PhotoShop (color ballance)

How many pixels would make up our solar system on this image of the center of the Heart Nebula?

Answer: only 0.014 pixel !

Numbers used

Neptune's orbit is 499 light minutes  in diameter. The camera has an image area of 4000 x 4000 pixels. The Heart Nebula's width, 200 light years, makes up approximately 3000 pixels across the original image, of which the image above is only a detail. One light year is then 15 pixels, so 499 light minutes is 0.014 pixel.