Today we added The Caterpillar image.

In editing this image, we increased the saturation  for cyan, magenta and blue – primarily in the midtones.  That along with a bit of localized sharpening was all this image needed to become spectacular.  Additional fine tuning was done on the printed version to really make some of the objects pop.

A Bok globule nicknamed the “caterpillar” appears at the right. Its glowing edge indicates that it is being photoionized by the hottest stars in the cluster. It has been hypothesized that stars may form inside such dusty cocoons. The top of the Keyhole Nebula, the most prominent feature embedded inside Carina, is on the left. Another Bok globule is in the foreground.

Object Names: Carina Nebula, NGC 3372

Image Type: Astronomical

Credit for Hubble Image: NASA, ESA, N. Smith (University of California, Berkeley), and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Credit for CTIO Image: N. Smith (University of California, Berkeley) and NOAO/AURA/NSF