Aloha!
I submit a recent sketch from 4/14/12 of the Eta Carinae Nebula. It was not much above the horizon this night, perhaps 10 degrees. I had to sit on the ground to observe it using my 12.5” Portaball. Well worth the dirt on my bottom. A gasp was all I could manage after seeing it for the first time. The night was superb, with no wind & excellent seeing.
The nebula is massive, ~4 times larger than the Orion Nebula covering about 3 degrees of sky. It also contains Eta Carinae, one of most luminous & massive stars known. If we could put this star the same distance as our sun it would appear 5 million times brighter. It is partly obscured by gas & dust making it appear dimmer than it actually is.
Eta Carinae Nebula in Carina NGC 3372
Diffuse Nebula
Haleakala, Maui Hawaii ~10,000 elevation
4/14/12
Charcoal pencil & white paper
Sketch inverted with Photoscape
12.5” Portaball, NPB filter
27mm Panoptic 56X
