Eta Carinae above the Dome of Residencia
Atacama Desert | By Year: 2016 | Chile | Clouds and Fogs Heavens | ESO Photo Ambassador | Meteors | Milky Way & Infrared | Professional Observatories in the World | Southern Hemisphere | Stars and Constellations | VLT
The incredibly dark and transparent sky of Paranal, in the Atacama Desert, Chile, is the perfect place to see the bright emission nebula Eta Carinae (almost in the center of the image). Below we also can see the violet-red color coming from the Running Chicken Nebula (IC2944) and below the dark band of clouds and above the horizon, is also visible the red-hued giant star Gacrux as well as the blue-hued giant star Mimosa, both from the Southern Cross constellation. The hazy atmosphere works as a natural diffuse filter, enhancing the saturation and revealing the real color temperature of each stars. More bluish they are, more hottest is their temperature. The orange-red stars, are coldest. The white dome is the Residencia for astronomers that are working on VLT Telescopes operated by ESO.
Image taken taken in 17/10/2015 from Cerro Paranal, Atacama desert, Chile.