Yeah, I have trouble pronouncing it too, but you probably recognize the
Hubble image of it. http://www.space.com/images/h_eta_carinae_0105_02.jpg
The double-lobed nebula resulted when the star, Eta Carinae, erupted about
150 years ago. Eta Carinae is one of the largest and most luminous suns
known, millions of times brighter than our sun. It lies within the vast Eta
Carina Nebula.
While discussing observations of Eta Carina Nebula with Bob and David, Bob
asked if I had looked at the homunculus. David added that he had seen both
lobes. I had scanned the Eta Carina Nebula at low and high power, but hadn't
looked closely at bright stars (what would be the point?). The next night, I
revisited the nebula and the star, Eta, at 214X in the 13". The brighter
lobe, facing toward us, was as plain as day. It was a bright ellipse,
approximately 9" long, jutting out from Eta, easily visible with direct
vision. It appeared to have a reddish hue. The fainter lobe, facing away,
was visible with direct vision once I knew it was there. I also thought I
detected structure in the lobes. At 300X, structure was unmistakable in the
brighter lobe. After studying the area for several minutes, I called Bob and
David over. We all made the same observations. After we returned home, I
compared my notes to the Hubble image. Sure enough, our observations
corresponded well. For example, in the Hubble image, the brighter lobe shows
three darker regions: one spot just left and down from the central star, and
another darker spot further out, and a larger dark zone along the lower
edge. In the eyepiece, the two inner dark regions were visible as irregular
dark patches. The zone along the lower edge showed up as a bite taken out of
the smooth curve of the ellipse. The contrast of the dark patches was
similar to details seen on Mars on good nights.
It was one of the more memorable objects of the trip. Be sure to take a
look.
Albert
Received on Sat Apr 16 23:17:38 2005
